PCC News

The beautiful tower walls of the Grade I listed church have been repointed with hydraulic lime mortar, and the badly decayed lime-stone dressings have also been replaced. Internally, the base of the tower has been re-plastered and the floor of the silence chamber reconstructed. We were pleased that the contractor was able to conserve and re-use the existing beams in the silence chamber floor. Unrepairable brick cappings to the stair turret were replaced and the fragile walls partially rebuilt and repointed. The west wall of the nave has been lime washed as well as the walls of the Lady Chapel and south porch. Once the restoration to the tower was completed we were then able to concentrate on the conservation of the Old Chapel ruins.

A major part of our community action plan, was to create the new Salthouse History Exhibition Centre within the newly restored tower. The village held a wealth of documents, images and maps about the history of Salthouse, and now, because of the new History Centre, these have been brought together by the Salthouse Village History Group.

The group are involved in managing the interchangeable displays and holding history meetings. The new History Centre has generated a lot of interest from the community and this has culminated in numerous visitors to the church. One such visitor commented that they were going to take the idea back to their own church!

I, as churchwarden and tower project co-ordinator, was expecting the project to last 30 weeks, but unfortunately from day one of the contract there were scaffolding installation delays and serious long-term health problems affecting the contractor. The PCC was very grateful to the Heritage Fund for their understanding and patience.

On behalf of the PCC, I would also like to give my personal thanks to David Lemon (from Spire Property Consultants), the church’s surveyor, for his guidance and professionalism throughout the project. My gratitude to him for his expertise, drive, dedication and support.

With over 650 churches in our Diocese, it is great when we receive stories of funding that PCCs have received to repair one of our glorious Houses of Worship. I hope that this story encourages you to continue doing the hard work raising funds that is already happening in so many of our parishes. If you need any advice regarding grants available, please do not hesitate to contact either me eboreg.phylre@qvbprfrbsabejvpu.bet 01603 882326 or my colleague
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