Monday 7 March was windy but dry and Oscar set about preparing the new bed with a better slope for the north gutters of the nave roof involving some hard work thinning the ends of the main beams.
On Tuesday Harry was reprogrammed to point the masonry joints at the clock face ready for its return. It duly arrived with Barry and Jamie from Gillett and Johnston. The iron ring is 49 ½ inches across its outside diameter and weighs about 30kg. With human toil it was lifted up to the chancel roof scaffolding. Next up to the nave roof then onto the clock face scaffold with an additional audience of three in Church Hill witnessing the event.
We had wondered whether or not to replace the acrylic central disc but with the architect present it was decided that it was better if we did after all! The hands were left set at 12 o’clock as the eighteenth century mechanical clock has not yet been set running, awaiting for some glue to fully harden. For a full view of the effect we shall have to wait for the scaffolding to be removed!
William, the architect, made a closer inspection of the capping stones on the nave parapet, many more of which are crumbling than we thought. The stonemasons report that they should all be lifted, cleaned and refixed, and several replaced with new stone. So we are expecting an inevitable rise in costs.
On Friday, the completion of the north nave gutter lining was nearly completed with the last gutters already preformed inside the church ready for installation.
Also on Friday, I was interviewed on the top of the tower by Martin Heath for BBC Radio Northampton about the project and the funding from the Heritage Stimulus Fund. The 8 minute recording is available on BBC Sounds at https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p0bqh6tg starting at 3:10:46 for a month with a very short clip of his video at https://twitter.com/heathm50?lang=en-GB
On Saturday, Darren and his special bending machine returned. A busy morning in the church saw 50 sheet metal ‘trays’ formed from the special Inox Uginox 0.5 mm thick stainless sheet steel coils. Next week they will be fitted to the nave roof.
GHP
< Report #7 Report #9 >
