What is happening at Escrick Church - an update
We are making great progress with the Heritage Project. The Heritage Activities are going well with volunteers currently working hard with Michala, our Heritage Engagement Officer, preparing the interpretation panels, recording oral histories, creating our digital archive and preparing for our new website.
The physical building work to the Church starts on 10th September. All is scheduled for completion by week commencing 18th March 2019. The Churchyard will be accessible at all times, for people visiting graves and interments….. and of course Remembrance Sunday.
The inside of the Church however will unfortunately be out of bounds for Health & Safety reasons, mainly due to the extensive scaffolding that is to be erected internally. We discussed with the builder the possibility of using part of the Church for services before March 2019, but they would not know until much nearer the time. The Project committee, in discussion with Richard, decided that it is best to work on the basis that we won’t be able to use the Church until March. Even if we did try and have Christmas services in Church, it would be full of scaffolding and the pews may not be in place following the new heating installation. We feel it is better for us to return to Church when it is all complete.
The Parsonage Hotel management have very kindly agreed that we can hold our Sunday services in their Albizia Suite, and our Thursday morning services will be held at 3 Dower Chase.
We are making alternative arrangements for our Christmas Services and concert, and will share details with you as soon as they are finalised. Full details will be in the Parish magazine and on our Facebook page.
We will be having formal meetings with the Builders and Surveyor/Architect/H&S consultant on a monthly basis, and we will be sharing weekly photographs with you to keep you up to date with what is happening. Again they will be on Twitter and Facebook too.
Before 10th September you will gradually see things start to be tidied and moved from Church as we ‘empty’ Church for the hand over to the builders. We still though have our Heritage Open Day coming up on 8th September and our regular Church services up to and including 9th September. We will try and make the service on 9th September a little special as it will be our last in Church for a few months, so if you can come along it would be great to see you.
It has been a long time coming, but it is now finally happening!!! And all thanks to generous donations, especially FOSH and Heritage Lottery Fund. We are sure the next few months of inconvenience will be very worthwhile come March, when we have our clean, warm, well-lit and accessible building – and we don’t have to struggle up the spiral staircase to put the brass away, crawl behind the staircase door for the tea and coffee or navigate the baptistery steps to share coffee after the service.
Thank you all for your patience and please do come along to the services in the Parsonage – it will be the same services, same people but just in a different temporary location.
Feel free to get in touch if you would like more information.
With my very best wishes.
Caroline Wandless, Churchwarden
