Drawing of the proposed new frontage for Church House
Our two buildings have served generations well since they were built: the church building in the 1830s (with an extension 100 years ago), and Church House in the financially-tough 1930s. We believe that we need to continue developing these buildings so that we can be more effective for years to come.
Church House is in use all week for Pre-school and toddler activities, children's and youth work, Cameo, Discover and other courses, and Adoramus. We see the need for more activities in future in order to welcome and serve visitors and help disciples to grow even more.
We are redeveloping the building to create a new frontage, which will include a welcome area and café for anyone to drop in, chat or ask for prayer. We will also build more small group rooms for children's and youth work and multiple other uses, relocating the main kitchen to a more convenient position for catering on all scales.
T and B Contractors Ltd are now starting work on Church House and plan to complete by March 2011. The cost is well within our incoming funds from gifts and pledges.
Note that the car park will be closed completely until the building work is finished, so please make other arrangements for parking. We apologise for the inconvenience caused.
After our initial proposal for an extension on the east end was rejected by planners, we now have a new proposal, which is more in keeping with the building's character and appearance and also provides more space. In summary, we propose:
The majority of the work on the church building will be scheduled later, to minimise the overlap with work on Church House. However, we have started by replacing the pews with new chairs, which will provide flexible seating for the new east-facing layout.