The Parish Church of St. Mary
Alderbury and Whaddon

Part of the Clarendon Team of Churches

Phase One - Completed!

The following work has already been completed - and you are welcome to come and inspect!

• Removal tea bar at the west end of the nave, lower floor, and provide new cupboarding and tea bar.
• Resetting the Font at the west end.
• Provision of internal toilet.
• Provision of flower arrangers sink and cupboards in the present choir vestry.
• Removal of 2 Front Row pews
• Removal of two easternmost pews in nave and lower floor to give space for music group.
• Removal of 'Radnor' pews from West End
• Provide new cupboards for choir in North Transept.
• Provision of new car park for 27 cars adjoining Parish Burial Ground.
• Redecoration throughout the church.

‘Old’

‘New’

Original 'tea bar' at the West End

Font near the North Transept

South Transept showing front rows of pews

Front of church showing additional 'space'

Main entrance showing drab decoration

Same view after repainting

New Hospitality Cupboards at West End

Chuch Refurbishment Project

Phase Three - Completed!

Heating the church has always been a problem. In the early days a coal fired hot water system was installed. This became difficult to maintain and was replaced by overhead ‘Dimplex’ style heaters. Unfortauntely these had to be mounted high up within the church, and were not overly effective. These heaters have now been supplemented with under pew heating.  This has made a real difference to the warmth in the church - but is not without problems. With all the heating on we are very close to the limit of the main supply. We therefore have to be careful whats switched on at any time. This can be improved by balancing the phases, and this is being investigated.

Phase Two - Completed!

We have had considerable problems with the Halogen flood lights used within the church for some years. Due to their age, the tubes regularly blew, and because of the height of the lamps, changing a tube was a major operation. With new legislation on working at height, something had to be done. We embarked on a project to replace the Halogen lamps with LED technology. Although obtaining the lights - and a good electrician - was not a problem, getting safe access to the lamps to replace them proved a real hurdle. In the end the Stone Mason who was working on the exterior of the building provided a light tower inside the building for the electrician to use. He was able to move the tower as the work progressed - and it even fitted between the pews (just!). Our church building is now much brighter, the lighting costs less to run, and we have improved our Green Credentials.

Work in Progress

The final result….. Far brighter!

Phase Four - Completed!

With a growing number of young people, the space we had within the church was insufficirnmt to allow all the groups to meet at the same time. At one stage we had out Teens groups meeting in the entrance way to the toilets. Not ideal to make them feel valued.

Our solution was to form an ‘upper room’ in the space in the tower above the toilets and storage area. Unfortunately this was started just prior to the Covid lockdown - so has taken a lot longer to compete than expected. But it was worth the wait…..