We are making good progress towards our development and renewal aims and want as many people as possible to understand what we are proposing and why we are doing it. You can see a video here which gives the latest position.
If you have any questions you can contact us via the parish office - 01793 522832 or parishoffice@christchurchswindon.co.uk or via this Renewal blog.
Thursday, 16 February 2012
Tuesday, 14 February 2012
The Great Toilet Debate
We recently had a visit from the Bristol Diocesan Advisory Committee, a group that advises on change in the church. Members of the Development and Renewal group met them to update them on our current plans for renewal. You can find some more details of our latest proposals on the noticeboard at the back of the church as well as on a video here.
In general the DAC were very positive and encouraging about our plans but were disappointed that we had given up on the provision of toilet and refreshment facilities within the church itself. Apparently there are many success stories for this sort of project and experience shows that provision of such services can have a positive effect. We were therefore persuaded to take another look.
Mike Palmer and Stephen Grosvenor set out to visit a number of churches where toilets had been installed within the fabric of the church building. Their first port of call was St Thomas in Salisbury where our architect, Anthony Feltham King had been involved in installing a POD system of toilet and a kitchen.
The installation is to a very high specification and incorporates a large disabled toilet, kitchen and flower room. Access to the toilet is discreetly place on the left hand side.
The unit is completely sound proof and when not in use, closes into a plain curved box.
From a practical point of view this is a convenient although potentially quite expensive solution.
We also visited St Sampson's church in Cricklade to see how they had incorporated a disabled toilet and survery into a previously un-used and unloved part of the church. Once again the toilets were accessed by a corridor so that no-one needs to loiter about in full view whilst waiting to go. This arrangement has now been in use for more than 3 years and has been a great success - winning over, we were assured, even those who had been steadfast in their initial opposition to the idea.
We are now looking once again at our own spaces - particularly at the North Transept and the North West corner. As soon as we have some specific proposals we will of course look for comments and suggestions as usual. In the meantime if you would like to give us your thoughts on toilet and refreshment provisions within the church then please either comment on this article or send an email to the parishoffice@christchurchswindon.co.uk
Development & Renewal Team
In general the DAC were very positive and encouraging about our plans but were disappointed that we had given up on the provision of toilet and refreshment facilities within the church itself. Apparently there are many success stories for this sort of project and experience shows that provision of such services can have a positive effect. We were therefore persuaded to take another look.
Mike Palmer and Stephen Grosvenor set out to visit a number of churches where toilets had been installed within the fabric of the church building. Their first port of call was St Thomas in Salisbury where our architect, Anthony Feltham King had been involved in installing a POD system of toilet and a kitchen.
The installation is to a very high specification and incorporates a large disabled toilet, kitchen and flower room. Access to the toilet is discreetly place on the left hand side.The unit is completely sound proof and when not in use, closes into a plain curved box.
From a practical point of view this is a convenient although potentially quite expensive solution.
We also visited St Sampson's church in Cricklade to see how they had incorporated a disabled toilet and survery into a previously un-used and unloved part of the church. Once again the toilets were accessed by a corridor so that no-one needs to loiter about in full view whilst waiting to go. This arrangement has now been in use for more than 3 years and has been a great success - winning over, we were assured, even those who had been steadfast in their initial opposition to the idea. We are now looking once again at our own spaces - particularly at the North Transept and the North West corner. As soon as we have some specific proposals we will of course look for comments and suggestions as usual. In the meantime if you would like to give us your thoughts on toilet and refreshment provisions within the church then please either comment on this article or send an email to the parishoffice@christchurchswindon.co.uk
Development & Renewal Team
Thursday, 2 February 2012
Burial ground mapping & research
We have prepared plans of the burial ground to the north side of the leisure centre in order to survey the graves and monuments located there. Since the slope to the existing building is so steep, we are investigating alternative ways to access a new building which we hope to put up in early 2013.
This may involve re-locating a small number of stones to adjacent parts of the burial ground. We have created the plan, a photographic record and full transcription of the most likely to be affected graves so that surviving family members can be contacted and consulted on the moves.
We have no intention of moving or disturbing the graves themselves and where moves are to be made, we will try to put them in more prominent positions and at the same time, make efforts to restore and clean the stones.
No firm design or plans have been made yet, research is still underway to find interested parties, we expect to begin to firm up plans towards the middle of 2012.If you think that you may be affected by this plan or know of someone who may have an interest in it then please contact Stephen Grosvenor s.grosvenor@gmail.com or 01793 341034.
You can download:
the plan here
the monument transcriptions here
and see the photo graphic record here
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