We are making good progress on the roofing project and as you’ll now see, the new vestry roof is almost complete (and looks terrific) and we have two new crosses, an oak one on the main Tower (as yet to be revealed as it is under the canopy) and a new stone one, on the east end Chancel roof.
The work on the 1525 Tower is much more challenging that we had thought given that all four corners of the tower structure have significant wood rot going back many hundreds of years. If you look carefully you’ll see that one corner of the Tower is slightly lower than the other.
Our architect, conservation roofer and master carpenter have proposed a solution that will stabilise the four Tower corners whilst the upper level of the roof is completely rebuilt. At that point we will hang new tiles, including ones signed at the Forget Me Not service and in church at other times just recently. The names of the servicemen who are listed on our War Memorial will be transcribed onto individual tiles and positioned close to the top of the west elevation of the Tower, overlooking the the stream.
The closure of London Road for the gas main repair is bringing with it extra delays which will, unfortunately add to the project timescales.
Having considered this with our architect and having briefed the PCC, I’m writing to inform you that the PCC has made the decision to defer the opening of St Swithun’s until 19th January 2025. This means we will not hold Christmas services at St Swithun’s this year.
The scale of the work involved to ready the church in a few days is too great for us to accomplish. In addition, it would be a mistake to hassle the roofers to finish the job potentially pushing them to take short cuts and drop their high standard of craftsmanship.
In brief all this means we will hold services as follows (all at St Mary’s, unless stated otherwise):
Friday 20th December
7.00pm Carols around the Tree (both parishes)
Sunday 22nd December
10.00am Carol Service for St Swithun’s
6.00pm Festival of Nine Lessons & Carols
Christmas Eve, Tuesday 24th December
3.00pm Carols around the Crib
11.15pm Midnight Mass
Christmas Day, Wednesday 25th December
10.00am Christmas Morning Service
11.15am Shortened service of Holy Communion
Sunday 29th December
10.00am Holy Communion for Christmas 1
Sunday 5th January
8.00am BCP Holy Communion
10.00am Holy Communion for Epiphany
3.00pm Chapel Communion Service (St Mary’s Chapel)
Sunday 12th January
10.00am Holy Communion for Epiphany 1
Sunday 19th January
8.00am No service
10.00am Re-opening of St Swithun’s with +David preaching and presiding
3.00pm Chapel Communion Service (St Mary’s Chapel)
Sunday 26th January
10.00am Holy Communion at St Swithun’s
10.00am Holy Communion at St Mary’s – note, we will not hold Breakfast Church that day, but start again in February.
6.00pm Open Worship (St Mary’s)
I’m pleased to inform you that on Sunday 19th January +David Williams has agreed to join us at St Swithun’s at 10.00am to bless and re-dedicate the church as we use it for the first time since August 2024.
This will be a joint parish service and I hope that we can join together and celebrate what has been achieved and secured through the roofing project. The architects and roofing team have been invited to join that service and there will be a buffet lunch afterwards which +David will stay on and share with us.
There will not be an 8.00am service that day, nor a 10.00am service at St Mary’s but we WILL hold the Chapel Communion at 3.00pm.
After that date, we will revert to our normal service patterns, although I do hope that we will join together every now and again – it has been a good opportunity to worship together, make friends and share new experiences.
Between the time the roofers leave and the church re-opens on the 19th, the car park will have remedial work on the surface and its edges and the church will be extensively and deeply cleaned. This work will take around 2 weeks, starting on Monday 6th January 2025.
These decisions have been taken with the best interests of parishioners uppermost in our minds.
I do hope having +David join us to re-open the church will be something that we can all look forward to and plan to attend. It will be a wonderful time.
As ever, if anyone wishes to discuss this with me or has any thoughts that you feel might help, please do be in contact.
Revd Paul