Necessary Repairs and Improvements to St. Cross

October 2018: Fr. Chris explains the progress of work needed to repair and improve our building:

In light of the St Cross with St Paul Clayton Quinquennial Inspection Report of March 2016 it is now incumbent upon the PCC of St Cross Church to begin work on re-pointing whole sections of the church’s exterior (replacing the cement mortar with lime mortar). We also aim to carry out repairs to the valley guttering as well as installing disabled access via one fixed ramp and two mobile ramps.
 
We have appointed an architect who is using elevational drawings of the church to draw up a scheme of work of the external repairs with costings.  Once we have these we will seek Archdeacon Approval to begin.
 
We are hopeful that the re-pointing work will be largely funded by Heritage Lottery Funding.  This will require us to demonstrate a number of outcomes depending on the amount we receive.  For amounts between £10K and £100K we are required to demonstrate a heritage outcome (that he building will be in better condition) and a people outcome (that people will have learnt something about the building). This could be done through seminars run by the architect, school projects, display boards, leaflets, booklets, website. For amounts between £100K and £500K we are required to demonstrate a further community outcome. It is unlikely that Heritage Lottery Funding will fund the entire project making it necessary to approach other grant-making bodies such as The National Churches Trust; Church Building Grant; Garfield Western; All Churches Trust; Duchy of Lancaster.
 
We are very grateful to John Gilchrest and Frank Knights who have already carried out a number of minor repairs and improvements to the church fabric, namely the preparation and redecoration of the north door adjacent to the ramp, the west elevation door to the vestry wing, the metal gates to the south-west porch and door, the former west doors and the step into church.