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Monthly Report for the Heritage Lottery Fund March 2021

St Sylvester’s Church Renovation and Community Project, Chivelstone Parish, Kingsbridge

Work during March covered external repair to the main church, vestry and south porch together with internal works to the toilet/shower and screen by Westcountry Stonemasons (WCSM). Work also focused on carrying out/developing remote community activities.

Tasks carried out in the Month

Project Administration

• General project administration and record keeping was undertaken.

Financials

• The third grant payment was received from the NLHF.
• Agreement in principal has been given by NLHF to use the project contingency to fund window repairs should sufficient funds be available.

Heritage Works

• This month the Project Architect and Contract teams have covered the following work;
  • The stonemasons are repointing the worst areas of the church walls with the Architect approved lime mortar mix; this is ongoing.
  • The structural repairs to the South Porch and Vestry are virtually complete with just some minor roof repairs remaining.
  • The old cast iron rainwater gutters and downpipes have been removed and new ones are on order and due on site soon.
  • The ecologist has been on site and has advised that the tower scaffold can proceed and has given detailed guidance on bat entrances around the church (into the walling at wall plate level).
  • The tower scaffolding is now underway.
  • The new toilet/shower carcase and first fix electrics and plumbing have been done. The area at the base of the tower now provides a more suitable temporary site office/welfare area for the contractor’s team who have now vacated the church car park area.
  • The detailed window repair survey has been carried out and is being priced up by WCSM.
  • The valley gutters and leadwork to roof have been inspected by architect and lead-worker. The resulting repairs are now being priced.
  • There have been no H&S issues and our adviser Health and Safety Associates has attended site.
  • The Architect is on site every week and in close contact with WCSM day to day.
  • The third month’s works valuation is underway.
  • There are regular monthly progress meetings (zoom) between the PSC, Contractors and Architect/Consultants.

Communications

• The project website continues to be updated and we are still seeing a good level of hits.
• The 7th instalment of the Church Blog has been issued.

Community Engagement/Activity Plan

• The difficult Covid 19 restrictions and current ‘lockdown’ are continuing to frustrate our Activity programme but we are actively adjusting our plan in conjunction with our partner, the South Devon AONB, to carry out virtual alternatives.
• The story telling video about the grave of the shipwrecked sailors from the Marana has been developed into a schools pack by our project partner, Nicky Bailey of the South Devon AONB and has been issued to our local Stokenham Primary school. From this the children have developed stories about the shipwreck which was supported by a ‘Teams’ question and answer session with members of the East Prawle History Society. Approximately 100 children took part. Their stories will be displayed at a future event at the church. Other schools will also take part in due course.
• The Chivelstone Church Memory Trail has now been set up with the assistance of our partner the Arts Society Kingsbridge, along with its identifying QR code.
• In conjunction with the AONB an ‘outside’ church bird walk has been arranged for the 20 May.
• We are in discussions with the Architect and Contractor to arrange a Hard Hat day at the church.
• We are in discussions with Ron Howell from our partner the SWMAG about the setting up of a permanent display of their marine archaeological work in the church. We have arranged for a Shipwreck Talk in early October.
• We have arranged for a meeting with our Evaluation Consultant Christina Dixon in April to review what we have achieved and develop plans to take us through further into the project.

Volunteer Time

• Volunteer time this month was in the order of 65 hours mainly working on project admin and finances, fundraising and implementation of the Activity Plan.