It is about a year since the last progress update on Project St Marys.  Over the year the team have been working away in the background on re-ordering and on preparations to apply for a Heritage Lottery Fund grant.

Reordering Review

Reordering is the term used for re-arrangement of the internal elements and the internal layout of the church e.g. altar, pews, etc.

The review into re-ordering was lead by Rector Jane with the assistance of church warden Teresa Thomas and PCC member Cynthia Newman. It was very important that the project understood if there was any impact on our plans, from re-ordering, that could mean re-working of those plans.

The results of the review are published and the conclusions have no impact on the work done so far on Project St Mary’s..

Project Plans

Planning work continues for putting a Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) application together. We have found out that the size of our project means we have to follow a two phased approach with HLF.

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1. Development Phase – to complete design and plan of works for both building and conservation. This includes costings so we can apply for the funding for the next phase …
2. Implementation Phase – physical works to build new facilities and undertake the conservation work.

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A year ago we published the results of the Feasibility Study, by our architects Acanthus Clews, in to adding new facilities at the church. The boards outlining the 3 options have remain on view at the church and the feedback received shows there is an overwhelming 85% preference for Option 3 – A new North Transept.

This work on the new facilities is now complete and can be moved forward into planning for the HLF Development Phase.

Conservation requirements

We have worked with Acanthus Clews to find out what conservation work is need so it can be included in the HLF Development Phase and ultimately in the Implementation Phase.

The main driver for conservation is the prevention of damp. Damp has such an impact on the wall plaster and paintings as well as other elements in the church and is complex in such an old building as St Marys.

Our next steps are to monitor the internal environment of the church and inspect the fabric of the building to help us determine what is required for our HLF applications. This work will be carried out by experts in church conservation and we need some funds to pay for this.

Fund Raising for Monitoring & Inspections

We have applied for matched funding grants from The Good Exchange. Matched Funding means any donations would be doubled in value to help make up the funds we are looking for. The application has been accepted and we are awaiting formal offers from the Funding Organisations.

We will let people know when this is in place and will invite people to donate. It is nice to know that the value of donations would be doubled no matter how small.

Project St Mary’s team

We are pleased to announce that Graham Robertshaw has joined the Project St Mary’s team during 2019.