The Parish of Heybridge

The Parish of Heybridge

Fabric Appeal

TARGET REACHED - £135,000 raised

Many thanks to all who have helped in any way to make this possible.

In the year 2000 the church architect inspected St Andrew's church and provided a report detailing essential repairs required to maintain the building for future generations. It had been many years since major work of repair had been undertaken.

The first phase of work was to provide new guttering and drains, urgently needed because dampness was damaging the masonry, floors and internal plastering. There were also some masonry repairs which were urgent and included in the first phase in order to prevent further damage. The estimated cost of work including all fees was £38000

COMPLETED

The third phase would be to repair the floor and replaster the walls where they had been damaged by dampness, at an estimated cost of £15 000

COMPLETED
Summer 2005

The second phase of work was to carry out further masonry repairs, particularly to the windows where ironwork was causing damage, at an estimated cost of £28 000

COMPLETED

The fourth phase was by no means essential. However redecoration would be a wonderful completion to the programme of work. It was estimated that this would cost a further £18 000 and so the parish was committed to raising £100 000 over a period of 5 years, beginning in October 2002.

Increased costs for redecoration work, plus essential work to counter beetle damage to the roof timbers mean the overall cost for the entire restoration works is now estimated at £131 000

The first three phases of work have now been completed. In 2006 a report advised us that the heating system was close to the end of its life. The PCC believe it would be irresponsible to use money given in good faith to redecorate the walls and then, in two or three years, damage them whilst removing old heating and installing new. The cost of the new heating system being in the region of £10 000 it was not realistic to consider raising this sum in the one year remaining of our original appeal. To complete the challenge that we have been given, the appeal was to be extended for a further three years from October 2007, giving us a total of four years to succeed in reaching a new target.

November 30th 2008: After 8 weeks during which services were held in the Waring Room the redecoration of the church was complete and we moved back in for the Advent Service. How appropriate that work has been completed in time for St Andrew’s Day.

Since moving back into church money has been raised to replace the old and rotted carpet which was removed during the redecoration. On October 24^th -25^th 2009 the church looked its best when an open weekend and service of Thanksgiving and Praise was held to mark the successful outcome of the appeal.