Monday, March 14 was a fine sunny day and Harry, Oscar, Alex and Shaun were at work on the nave roof on one of the least windy days they have had here so far.
The weekend had seen some frantic administrative activity as the ramifications of the recommendation by the architect to carry out an extra £14,740 work on the nave parapet masonry, sunk in. All of the PCC were of one mind and the go-ahead was given by the Monday deadline. The work will see all of the parapet capping stones removed, cleaned and refitted on fresh lime mortar so they remain secure on the new flashings into the gutters. The work will include provision of two new eastern corner pieces and 6 metres of newly cut stone to replace the worst eroded samples. The new ironstone will come from Great Tew quarry, the other side of the hill from the exhausted Hornton quarry. The stone will be cut and profiled by Weldon Stone Enterprises Ltd. We are not sure whether some of these capping stones were the originals from the 15th century or come from major roof works over the centuries but they were found to have been re-bedded on cement, rather than lime mortar, so probably in 1975.
With the weather still fine, Tuesday saw a lot of activity. The stonemasons were busy starting to remove the nave parapet capping stones. Shaun and Alex were rapidly fitting the nave roof ‘trays’ on the south side. Harry was preparing the sloping framework for the new cappings of the chancel parapet.
The clock mechanism was set going at 12.03pm so it didn’t take much to reset the hands from the traditional 12 o’clock used to show the clock was not going. We expect the clock will soon be more visible because the access scaffolding platform will be used to form a new platform for the stonemasons to secure the nave gable end capping stones.
On Wednesday amid the drizzle the nave parapet stones were all lowered under Charlie Dunn’s leadership for fuller examination and cleaning.
Harry’s team were removing the lead downpipes from the north nave roof to the aisle roof. One was blocked with debris and water has been running down the masonry unseen behind it.
Then it rained heavily for 8 hours, a bit too soon, as the flashings were not all in place and some water got in along the north side of the nave.
At the second formal site meeting on Thursday, we learned from stone mason Jack Dunn that more capping stone than so far listed needed to be replaced – now a total of 12.5 metres (about 45%), £4,225 more! The PCC decided to proceed. Better news was that the roof work will be completed by the target of 31 March after which we can start to restore the inside of the church ready for use on Palm Sunday. The scaffolding will stay in place for another 3-4 weeks while the stonemasons complete the nave roof parapet.
The weather at the end of the week greatly improved so that by Saturday all the roof ‘trays’ were fitted leaving the joint covers and flashings to be fitted next week.
See sand cast lead sheet being made: click IMG_0835
GHP
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