St Nicholas Restoration

We have started a small fund-raising group, and ideas are already coming in for ways to help raise this target. If you would like to be involved in that group, or have ideas for doing a fund-raising event, please contact Don Simpson on 01926 426652.

If you have been waiting to find out how much we need to raise before making a donation, then please make any donations payable to “St Nicholas Restoration Fund” – and if you are able to Gift Aid it, we can receive an added bonus from the Government !

Thank you again for your support, and please continue to be creative and inspired as we begin the next stage of raising funds and setting the detail. As we have looked back with great sadness at all we lost in the fire, I hope that we will all now begin to look forward with excitement to what is to come.

Village meeting, led by Patrick Crawford and Alex Veal from Caroe & Partners, Architects. Summary by Rev Martin Green.

The presentation opened with a reminder of what had happened on Palm Sunday 2008, a fire that had been so intense that there was nothing left inside the church except rubble and charred timbers. The whole roof structure had been completely destroyed, and a significant amount of the internal stonework had been very badly damaged.

Patrick then explained the process we have been through following the fire – of gathering together ideas and hopes of the rebuild from the church community, and putting together a working brief from that.

These ideas in effect brought the facilities currently in the old church room into the main church complex – facilities like toilets, kitchen, office space and meeting areas.

They had then produced some outline designs which have been refined and developed to the point we have come to today. These plans have been given initial approval by the Church council (PCC), Coventry Diocesan Advisory Committee (DAC), the amenity groups (including English Heritage, The Victorian Society, Council for the Care of Churches …) and by the local authority.

There are elements of the work which will restore the church to its former glory, and other elements that will be new.

The effect of the restoration work will be that the aspect of the church from the road will look as it did before the fire. The new work will add two small extensions to the rear of the church, and adapt the interior to be more open and flexible as a resource for the community.

There will also be an alteration in the roof structure over the North aisle which will bring in more natural light and give a wonderful new focus to the church.

We hope to be able to open the East end of the church during the week as a distinct and separate space, for visitors to the churchyard, for some of the groups that used to meet in the church room, and for meetings.

The whole church can be available for worship, concerts and other larger gatherings.

The timescale for this is that there is 9-12 months building work, and we hope to re-open the church in July 2012 (if not before !) There is much to do between now and then.

There were some questions raised following the presentation:

• We are exploring sustainable heating and lighting systems, to make the church as ecologically friendly as we can.
• The materials to be used for these extensions are being explored at the moment, but will be sympathetic with the church and its environs.
• The new facilities are designed to complement the Community Hall in the village.
• There are no definite plans as to where the contractor’s site will be, but much of the work can be done off-site and brought in at the right time …
• We will not meet these plans within the insurance settlement, and therefore will need to raise a further projected £90,000, plus something more to cover uncertain VAT costs.

The following files are available for download:

• Summary from Village Meeting on 21st Jan 2010 (copy of the above post)
• Architects Model Presentation on 21st Jan 2010 (PDF, 2.5MB)
• Architects Model Presentation on 21st Jan 2010 (Powerpoint, 10MB)

The following updates have been made to the website:

- Correct file uploaded for Bulletin 10 in Downloads
- Bulletin 11 file added to Downloads
- Fundraising target added to sidebar
- Added website email address to sidebar
- Upgraded Word Press (the software that powers the site)
- Events calendar now displays correctly

I am at last delighted to be able to write with some good news.  After months of apparent inactivity and negotiation, I am able to tell you that the Insurance Company have finally agreed a settlement of just over £2m for the rebuilding of the church.  This means that we can set a budget at last and begin the process of detailed plans and applications for permission.

We have already had to spend nearly £300,000 of this on the first stage of the project, making the church ruin secure and covered, and you will have seen that the tower covers have been replaced again.

I also know that some of you have been waiting until this point to know how much extra we have to raise before making a donation to the Restoration Fund. We have instructed our architects to work within a budget of £2.2m, which will mean that we are able to add a small extension behind the tower for much needed toilet facilities, and another at the East end behind the vestry to provide an office.  This brings the facilities currently divided between church, church room and Vicarage shed, into one place.

This leaves us with £160,000 to find; we have already accumulated about £70,000, so we have an overall target of around £90,000 to raise.  Until construction starts and we have bills to pay, we plan to invest most of the cash payment received with the insurance settlement, and expect that the interest this investment earns will make a useful contribution to the target.

So what’s next ?

The first thing is that I am trying to arrange a village meeting, when the architects can come and present the outline plan to you and answer any questions you might have.  The PCC has already approved this outline design, as have English Heritage and the Diocesan Advisory Committee, but this has all been conditional on budget. Now that we have a basic budget to work with, we know what is feasible, and therefore can invite you to come and see what is proposed within those limitations.

The second thing is to press on with obtaining permissions from the various statutory bodies as the plans we have are made more detailed and specific. This could take time, but is essential.

While this is going on, we also need to set about raising our target figure of £90,000. We plan to set up a fund-raising group who can mastermind various events and activities, so if you would like to be part of this, or have any fund-raising schemes and ideas, please do get in touch with Don Simpson (426652) . I am hoping that this process will actually be quite fun, as it will mean doing things together as a community, and then celebrating the end result together.

So I am delighted that we are moving into this next stage of the process – it has taken a long time, but we hope to make faster progress from now on.

Thank you again for your patience and support – we will get there !

Rev Martin Green