Monthly Report for the Heritage Lottery Fund January 2021
St Sylvester’s Church Renovation and Community Project, Chivelstone Parish, Kingsbridge
Work during January covered the starting on site by Westcountry Stonemasons (WCSM) and beginning the physical repair works, arranging for a telecoms connection, setting up communication platforms and planning remote community activities.
Tasks carried out in the Month
Project Administration
- General project administration and record keeping was carried out.
Financials
- A £50,000 loan was received from a parishioner to facilitate project cashflow.
- We have agreed in principle with the NLHF that the contingency sum can be used to fund the potential overspend on the South Porch repair.
- We continue to receive offers of financial support and are continuing with the virtual ‘Church Jigsaw’ fund raising scheme.
Heritage Works
- This month the Project Architect and Contract teams have covered the following work;
- Site and facilities set up at the church and car park.
- Erection of the lower scaffolding to the church. Some bones were uncovered (just below soil level) at the NE end of the church, during the scaffolding works and the archaeologist called to site. The bones have been safely stored ready for re-burial after the works are complete.
- The stonemasons are raking out all accessible areas of the church pointing at low level; this is ongoing.
- The unstable Vestry east wall has been cleaned and inspected by the Architect and Structural Engineer and will require further rebuilding with added structural ties (to connect to inner and outer leaves). Extra stone has been sourced locally.
- Trial holes were dug to facilitate the inspection of the South Porch foundations by the Structural Engineer and a remedial works plan developed. Heli- Piles have now been driven to the front of the porch and are tied in with a concealed reinforced concrete ring beam. Horizontal side wall metal tie bars (concealed at a depth covered by the pointing) are to be fixed soon. This plan has limited the potential damage to the South Porch to a minimum.
- Our Project Archaeologist has been on site to oversee any excavations.
- The Architect is on site every week and in close contact with WCSM day to day.
- Due to the scale of the repair works an F10 notice has now been issued to the Health and Safety Executive under CDM Regulations.
- The first months works valuation has been agreed and we await the WCSM invoice.
Communications
- The BT business broadband has been installed and the church now has wifi.
- The project website continues to be updated and we are still seeing a good level of hits.
- We have created a Chivelstone Church YouTube Channel and 2 videos have been uploaded. We have also set up a Twitter account.
Community Engagement/Activity Plan
- The difficult Covid 19 restrictions are continuing to frustrate our Activity programme but we are actively adjusting our plan in conjunction with our partner the AONB, to carryout virtual alternatives.
- The 5th instalment of the church ‘blog’ has been issued.
- The story telling video about the grave of the shipwrecked sailors from the Marana is being progressed and filming should take place shortly as we hope to begin this activity in March.
- We have planned for the following virtual activities;
- Talk on 120 years of local farming in February
- Bird walk and talk in April
- Another bat walk and talk in September
- We are hoping, with covid behind us, to have an open day at the end of September.
Volunteer Time
- Volunteer time this month was 121 hours mainly working on project admin and finances, and implementation of the Activity Plan. Volunteer hours reported previously for the month of December should have been 365 hours.