The Castle
Combe Weekends
St. Andrew's Church Restoration
Amongst the local
charities that will benefit from the proceeds of ‘The Castle Combe Weekend’ on
of the main beneficiaries will be the St. Andrew’s Church restoration appeal. To
countless visitors to the village our C13th Grade 1 listed Church forms one of
the high spots. Built from the proceeds of the then thriving wool trade it had fallen into
disrepair by the mid 1800s when it was restored by the Victorians. Sadly their zeal in
spreading ‘The Word’ and maintaining its bricks and mortar was not always
matched by their building practices. To keep St. Andrew’s in good condition requires
an ongoing programme of repair and funds are put aside annually to deal with this.
Every five years we are required to have an Architects inspection to ensure that we are keeping the fabric of the building up to scratch. Last year’s provided us with a somewhat daunting range of tasks. These included the restoration of eleven listed ‘Table Top’ tombs, (visitors will see that one has just been completed) ingress of damp through the guttering (also dealt with), stabilizing of the outer stone work which is spalling in places, replacement of some of the stone roof tiles and restoration of many of the stained glass windows which have started to bulge. As can be imagined this placed a tremendous strain on resources however the PCC felt that over the next 5 year period these works were, in the most part, achievable from existing funds.
That was until part of the flooring was lifted to deal with a small area of woodworm.
As a result of the wet rot discovered we are now faced with the
replacement of the entire wooden floor. This MUST be dealt with within the next couple of
years.
If that were not bad enough some four or so months ago a crack suddenly appeared in the side arch over the pews adjacent to the organ. On inspection it transpired that the decorative mouldings on the face of the arches were not of stone, as had been assumed, but were of plaster, added by the Victorians and affixed by steel pins which are now swelling due to damp. The first problem area has been dealt with and the old plaster replaced with stone. The Chancel arch (over the choir) is also about to undergo a programme of repair. Given the building method there is almost sure to be more, as yet undiscovered, to come!
The bill for all this work, as well as building up our reserves to keep something in hand for future eventualities, is likely to come to somewhere in the region of £80,000! This figure is way outside our reserves.
While we can go to various grant giving bodies, and indeed are in the process of making approaches, these are unlikely to fund the total sum needed, if at all.
Update
Further sections of the floor have now been lifted under the pews to investigate further the woodworm and rot. The news is not good. The images below show the state of the joists supporting the floor, these are badly rotted with some (including one in the second photo) that have actually split into two pieces. In the first photo, pieces of the end plate that houses the end of the joist can been seen in the void below the floor, they have simply come away as the rot has set in. It is likely the majority of the floor is in this state and hence it can be clearly seen how urgent the work to undertake the restoration is.
