You may already know that St Andrew's Church is faced with a huge restoration programme in order to fulfil some of the major building and fabric works both inside and outside the church.
The tasks in maintaining the church always seem to be endless, but recently we discovered some major problems to add to those already in hand. We knew that external stonework, roofing and guttering, stained glass windows, plus many table-top tombs were high on our agenda, but when wet rot was discovered underneath the pews and major fractures appeared in the stonework over the arches inside the church, we knew that our problem was not a small one.
Recent work, removing the floor boards under the pews, have shown the full extent of the problem.
This image shows the damage that has been uncovered. The beam supporting the floor can be seen to be almost entirely rotton, with the dark material below being sections of the end plate the beam is located in having simply fallen away into the void. It is likely that most of the underneath of the church floor is in this state and hence it is obvious why we need to take action before the rot sets in further.
The image at the bottom of the page shows a joist that has split into two pieces.
By launching the S.T.A.R. appeal we are seeking all ways of raising money, however large or small, to pay for these essential works.
