Norton Juxta Twycross

CHURCHWARDENS PAGE

INTRODUCTION

The object of the Churchwarden’s page is to bring Parishioners up to date with matters affecting the Holy Trinity Church in general and the Building in particular.  The first briefing is on the Church Roof.  I hope to add, at a future date, a briefing on Church funding, a topic which is widely misunderstood and anything else, of which you should be kept informed.

LOCAL CHURCH COUNCIL MEETING

 There will be a Local Church Council meeting at the Memorial Hall at 7.30PM on Wednesday 25 March.  There are a number of important issues we shall be discussing, not least the repairs to the Church Roof, funding challenges and the graveyard extension.  All from the village are very welcome and are encouraged to come and have their say.  We are going to experiment with this more open approach in an effort to involve the village more in the work of the Church. 

THE CHURCH ROOF

The Problem

You may be aware that over the last five years or so, we have suffered some plaster falls from the Church roof.  The main areas are over the Choir stalls, just inside the Church door and more recently, above the barrel organ.  The final fall has caused some damage to the barrel organ, which has been notified to our insurers.  Fortunately it does not appear to be too serious, but will at least require a clean of the organ and the repair of about four of the lead pipes.   However there does not appear to be any point in progressing with the repair until the cause, the roof, is sorted.

During the first week in July we had an inspection by the Church architect and a builder, experienced in old Church buildings.  The underlying problem is that damp is getting in and causing the horse hair, which binds the plaster and provides its strength, to rot.  The plaster then cracks, separates from the lathes and ultimately fails.

While it is likely that on the inside, the problem is localized, the advice is that there is no point attempting to solve the internal problems, until the external source of the dampness is solved.  The long and short of it is that the roof on the south side of the church needs to be replaced.  It may be necessary to do the north side as well, although that was done about 20 to 30 years ago.  The jury is out on that one.  These are the reasons why:

The Cost

We do not yet know the likely cost of the repairs, but it is likely to be in the region of £40,000 to £100,000, depending on what needs to be done on the north side of the roof.   It is hoped that the majority of that can be covered by a grant from English Heritage.  There are also other potential sources of grant aid, however EH usually expect us to meet some of the cost at least of supporting work ourselves. Unfortunately we have missed the deadline for this year’s English Heritage bids, but that is no bad thing as the preparation of the necessary reports and documentation is a lengthy process.  The good news is that the work is necessary but is not so urgent that it needs to rushed.

What next

We await the report of the Church architect and builder, which when I receive it, I will use to update the website, I hope including some pictures.  In the meantime please feel free to contact me if you have any queries or a spare £100,000 under your mattress!