Church Hall and Grounds

Let the Works Commence!

In 2018 parishioners Julia and John Lidster started gardening in order to help Bernard Watts who had been valiantly maintaining the extensive and overgrown church grounds as a solo effort. Later joined by Mike Hann, a small but dedicated gardening group developed that included some of our youngest members who have had great fun over the years bringing order to this once unruly jungle!

Julia and Mike then decided to begin fundraising for a new ramp to make the church accessible for people with mobility problems. Whilst the parish had managed with a moveable ramp to bridge the stepped doorway, this was difficult to manage and dangerous for fingers.

The ramp was completed in July 2022

The Old Hall—Full of Heart but Falling Apart

Once the improvements had started it made sense to roll on to the church hall, and work was in full swing by 2023. The hall is a pre-fabricated wooden construction, dating back to the Second World War. It had a very outdated kitchen, no toilet facilities and sorely needed to be brought up to current building regulations.

First, the hall was gutted.

The way was now cleared for the new hall to take shape. The building was insulated, rewired and the plumbing and drainage updated.

By the end of 2023, a fully accessible toilet, with baby-changing facilities, was installed where the old kitchen used to be and the kitchen was relocated to the adjoining store room. This was all thanks to a range of dedicated tradesmen and a small army of enthusiastic volunteers and supporters.

So the kitchen went from this

to this

Finishing touches— a new floor, new blinds and new chairs

and the hall is transformed from this

to this

…as the parish gathered together on the occasion of the blessing of the hall by Bishop Terence Patrick on Sunday, December 8th, 2024.

Bishop Terence Patrick sits for a photograph with Father David along with Julia Lidster, Mike Hann and other volunteers. Just in time for Christmas 2024.

Looking to the Future

But the work does not stop there. Attention will be focused next on the repair and restoration of our beautiful church which is a grade 2 listed building. So watch this space as 2025 sees the beginning of a whole new project…

But for now, we finish where we started with the grounds and with the crowning glory of the project: a wonderful statue of Our Lady to whom the church is dedicated and on whose intercession we all rely.