Progress report – 29 December 2022
The contractors are not working this week, so this report picks up where things were done last week and looks forward to next year. It is an opportunity to introduce readers to our new site manager Gurmail Lalh, addressed as Lalh. He is seen here worrying about the position of stones and floor boxes with two staff of the stone masons, Paye.
In the south aisle the font is in its future position – but on a pallet while discussions on how best to fix the drain are concluded.
Apart from stone laying the turn of the year sees work on the partitions in the mezzanine and on its ceiling, which will be installed below the insulation and ventilation for the toilets partitions in the mezzanine. There is an awful lot packed into this space and a real contrast with the wide open floor of the nave.
And in the third picture, the Cornerstone outside toilet is now ready for the boilers to be installed.
A whole range of people continue to be very generous givers, and yet we need still more! This is an old building and we are still finding problems that we could not possibly have imagined. The structural engineer has now fully investigated why the pulpit base had such a large crack from a small knock. It had been constructed partly on top of a memorial stone. Not surprisingly when the stone was knocked the pulpit moved.
Thank you to everyone who is giving to the appeal, to the chairs, the organ and the main appeal. Please help us get there quickly – details of how to donate are on our web site.
Although the building itself is closed, worship continues in The Cornerstone on Sundays (8, 9.30 and 11.15am) and on weekdays (Tuesday and Wednesday at 10 am and Thursday at 9 am) and the bell ringers will have access to the tower again. There is still access to almost all the churchyard either through the lychgate in London Road or the double gate in Norreys Avenue. The memorials by The Cornerstone and by the vestry door can be accessed by arrangement with the Parish office.