St Michael’s Church Refurbishment Project

The church building is important to our community and to our worship.

To give financially to the Church Refurbishment Click here  PLEASE CHOOSE FUND “CHURCH REFURBISHMENT” FROM THE DROP-DOWN MENU

We are committed to protecting, preserving and enhancing the building as our legacy for generations to come.

In recent years, we have spent a considerable sum on building work to the tower, stonework, boundary wall and new roofs.

Over the past couple of years we have been looking to improve safety, visibility and accessibility inside the church building.

We are excited to move forward on this, making our church building, fit for generations to come, whilst honouring it’s history.

The four key ambitions for the Heart of the Community project has been:

• Create a spacious modern meeting place in the centre of the community
• Restore our historic church building for generations to come
• Upgrade our existing community rooms
• Fund outreach and anti-poverty projects locally, nationally and internationally

These refurbishments come under the second of these ambitions.

View the latest plans here

April 2025

The DAC have previously approved all aspects of the project other than the proposed heating solution. Work on this restarted in 2024 and we have now submitted a faculty application to get final approval. The timing of the the refurbishments works is dependant on a number of factors, including finance. This will be the focus of our next Gift Day.

The scope of the project includes the following aspects:

• The levelling of the floor throughout the nave, chancel, vestry and tower and laying porcelain tiles throughout
• Remodelling the current vestry to become a toilet and kitchenette. A new external accessible door will be made to gain access to this room and the existing outer door will be blocked off
• The vestry will be relocated to be under the tower
• The removal of pews and replacement with ecclesiastical chairs
• Inclusion of Far Infrared Heating to replace the gas boiler and mix of radiators and heater/blower units
• A new 3 phase power supply will be installed for the heating

Previous Updates

July 2023

Over the past year we have discovered that the pillars in the church have historical significance. Therefore there have been significant changes to the original scope of the plan. You can read the latest update here. We are still working towards DAC approval.

May 2022

Following the application being resubmitted, the Diocesan Advisory Committee (DAC) will now consult the amenity societies (Church Buildings Council, Historic England, Georgian Group, Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings) to seek their views. This is equivalent to applying for Civil
Planning Permission, but in an ecclesiastical context. 

A finance availability timeline is being drawn up and we now have a potential start date of Autumn 2023.

March 2022

A positive meeting was held with the Diocesan Advisory Committee (DAC) in church on 17 February. A written response has been received, and the DAC are broadly supportive of our aims. They had some comments which the steering group and architect are addressing.  We aim to resubmit the application again in April.

November 2021

The Faculty (license to make physical alterations) application has been put to the Diocesan  Advisory Committee ( DAC) and a positive response was received.  We will be responding to their initial questions and we will then resubmit the application

We have received three tenders, and an initial meeting with the preferred contractor will be arranged for an initial discussion.

Due to the complexities of the application, as well as rising costs, the start date of the refurbishment is now unlikely to be before Autumn 2022

The steering group continues to meet regularly and reports back to the PCC.

September 2021

The project specification has been sent out to tender with a full tender package supporting it.   

There are two documents which we wanted to share: 

Proposed plan – click here

Proposed plan for toilets  – click here

The preference for  flooring and chairs have also been decided on.

If you have any questions regarding these plans please do get in touch.

 August 2021

The trial digs earlier in the year were successful and plans have been drawn up. The next step is for the plans to be put out to tender. Once these tenders have been received we can go to the Diocesan Advisory Committee (DAC) for approval of the faculty. We hope to be able to then start works in the New Year. 

The steering group (chaired by Simon) and Church Fabric Committee have also chosen the chairs and flooring for  post-refurb.

March 2021

We pleased to say that DAC List B permission has now been granted to proceed with the investigatory digs in the floor. After liaising with the contractor and archaeologist for a suitable date this will now take place week commencing 8 March. We’re excited to be moving forward and look forward to the results of the trial digs.

January 2021

Before starting the works, we must get approval from the Diocesan Advisory Committee (DAC).   They asked us to appoint an archaeologist to investigate the history of the church building and to oversee a number of trial digs. The digs are to confirm that there are no burials under the existing floor, so we know whether underfloor heating is viable.

We’re pleased to say that the archaeologist has been appointed and has started to research the history of the church.  Mogford Prescott Ltd has been appointed to carry out the trial digs. We have applied for a List ‘B’ approval/permission for the archaeological work and trial digs and are awaiting approval from the DAC. 

As soon as we’ve received this, our architect will coordinate with the Archaeologist and contractor to start five trial digs.