St Bartholomew’s Restoration

Easter 2007

The majority of the work is now complete and the church reopened for services on Christmas Day.

There will be a thanksgiving service at 6.00 pm on 22 April 2007

Summary of the current situation as at 17-8-06

Work on the final phase of St Bartholomew's restoration continues to progress well.
The wall is finished and the mound will be seeded with grass and wild flowers in the autumn.
Work on repairing and restoring the roof and outside of the church is complete and can now be seen in its final state from all around.
Restoration of the inside is underway and involves: stabilising the cracked arches; repairs to stonework, ceiling and floor; and redecoration. It is due to be completed in early November.
The appeal to individuals in the community and church members has raised over £25,000.
In addition there have been very generous grants of £10,000 from the Gloucestershire Historic Churches Trust and £20,000 from the national Historic Churches Preservation Trust.
This gives over £55,000 to add to the £256,000 grant from English Heritage and some £39,000 being paid by the Dean & Chapter.
That means the Project Manager and the Churchwardens should be able to authorise all the work needed to do the job properly including, probably, a hearing loop system and improvements to the lighting and wiring.

Previous statement

A great deal of work has been going into preserving St Bartholomew’s. The mound on which the church is built has probably always been unstable, but a combination of dry summers and mature trees led to ground movement becoming significantly worse in the late 1980s and throughout the 1990s. This in turn led to the massive cracks which have disfigured the building and threatened its collapse. The Parochial Church Council (PCC) and English Heritage took expert advice and paid for very detailed surveys and monitoring. The PCC had to buy additional surrounding land and pay for trees and vegetation to be removed with the aim of halting the severe deterioration of the mound.

The monitoring showed that this was achieved and so the second stage of the preservation programme could begin: the major civil engineering work which is now finished. The work has involved casting a reinforced concrete retaining wall in front of the existing stone retaining wall. The new wall is supported on piles and held back with ground anchors. It has been faced with attractive stone. The mound will be prepared and seeded with grass and wild flowers with a minimum of future maintenance in mind.

These two completed stages have together cost over £770,000. The bulk of this has come from grants from English Heritage (recognising St Bartholomew’s status as a Grade 1 Listed Building), with most of the rest coming from the Dean & Chapter, a generous bequest left by Donald Guttridge , other PCC funds and a grant of £35,000 from the Friends of St Bartholomew’s.

But the work isn’t finished. The progressive structural instability from the movement of the mound has led not only to the major external and internal wall cracks that can easily be seen, but also to damage to arches, ceilings, floors, steps, walls, joints, leaded lights, gutters, roof tiles and flashings. Repairs to all these will need to be followed with rendering, plastering, retiling and redecoration. Estimates show that all this will cost about another £350,000 (after we have reclaimed VAT). English Heritage has recently offered £244,000 towards this sum and the Dean & Chapter will bear some £35,000 in recognition of their responsibility to maintain the chancel. But the parish is going to have to raise the rest if we are going to preserve this wonderful local landmark in a proper state for future generations.

The good news is that we have made a good start. Some £4,600 had already been donated by the end of November, including £1,000 from Churchdown Parish Council and £2,500 obtained from the Gloucestershire Environmental Trust Company who administer Landfill Tax Credits. We received a very generous grant of £10,000 from Gloucestershire Historic Churches Trust – so please support their sponsored bike ride in September! We have also asked for a grant from the equivalent national body – the Historic Churches Preservation Trust – and they will consider our application in mid-March.

If you would like to make a contribution to the restoration of this magnificent Christian building because of past or present connections with Churchdown - or just because you are feeling generous - please obtain the donation form from the downloads page and follow the instructions therein.

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