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Monthly Report for the Heritage Lottery Fund September 2021

 

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

Work during September covered the external repair to the tower walls and church windows by Westcountry Stonemasons (WCSM). Work also focused on implementing the Activity and Interpretation plans particularly the Church Open Day.

Tasks carried out in the Month
Project Administration
  • General project administration and record keeping was undertaken.
Financials
  • We continue to try to raise additional funds and have carried out the following;
    • The Ash Park Open Garden Event was most successful and raised over £2000 for the restoration fund.
    • We also had a well attended Church Open Day which again raised nearly £600.
    • We have received £500 from Devon County Council.
    • Our application of a grant of £1000 from the Devon Historic Churches Trust has been approved and we await payment.
Heritage Works
  • This month the Project Architect and Contract teams have covered the following work;
    • The re-pointing of the tower is about two thirds complete and the top five scaffold lifts have been removed. Due to various adverse weather conditions and the increased complexity of repointing the tower top there has been some slippage to the repair programme and WCSM will be requesting an Extension of Time, likely to be around a month.
    • Most of the window repairs are now complete.
    • The lead work and rainwater goods to the north side of the tower are being fixed as the scaffold is lowered.
    • Internal fit out to the toilet/shower area will resume in early October and will take about 4 weeks to complete.
    • The glassdoor/screen to the west door has been fabricated and along with the timber work to the new bell ringing chamber staircase which is currently under fabrication, will be fitted towards the end of the contract.
    • Humphries and Jones have begun the conservation work to the pulpit which should take about 3 weeks.
    • There have been no H&S issues and our adviser Health and Safety Associates is liaising with WCSM regarding the Health and Safety works file.
    • The Architect is on site every week and in close contact with WCSM day to day.
    • The nine months works valuation is complete.
    • 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.
  • Instalment 12 of the Church Blog was issued in September.
Community Engagement/Activity Plan
  • With the lifting of Covid restrictions we are now able to implement the activities detailed in our Activity Pan.
  • As mentioned above our Church Open Day was held on 25th September. This was a major Activity with some 3 days of cleaning required by an army of volunteers to get the church ready for the day. In conjunction with our partner South Devon AONB many events were arranged, the attendance was excellent and it was good to see that families from school children who were involved in the Shipwreck Story writing also came along.
  • As also mentioned the Ash Park Open Gardens Day was a great success and being held over a weekend many people had the chance to visit.
  • Another Hard Hat Day has been arranged for 4th October to view the conservation of the pulpit.
  • In conjunction with our partner South West Maritime Archaeological Group a talk on the Shipwrecks of East Prawle and Start Point will be held on 12th October.
  • Draft ideas of the interpretation panels were on display at the Church Open Day and we received a lot of feedback and ideas for improvement from our visitors.

 

Volunteer Time
    • Volunteer time this month was a massive 277 hours with many new volunteers helping out on the Church clean up. The total time to date is now 1609 hours.