Renewal of the Church Roof
20 May 2016 • General news
On Tuesday May 17th the contractor was selected for the first phase of the complete renewal of the roof of St Alban's Church. Funded partly by a grant of £72k* from the Listed Places of Worship: Roof Repair Fund, together with VAT refund and a contribution of about £32k* from our existing Restoration Fund, this phase will cover the low-level roofs at the East end of the church – St Patrick's Chapel, the Ambulatory and the Organ Loft – together with the high-level roof of the South Transept. The old tiles and battens will be stripped and new "Dreadnought" tiles, chosen to be a close colour match with the original tiles, will be laid. Unlike the Victorian tiles, which were "torched" (plastered on the underside) and are now loose because the torching has crumbled, the new tiles will be securely nailed to new battens over modern sarking (waterproof membrane) ensuring that the roof is waterproof and secure against wind damage for many years to come.
Work will start in late June or early July and last up to 12 weeks. During this time there will be scaffolding around the East end of the church and both the South garden beside Conybere Street and the North lawn between the church and the path to the cloister door will be site areas. There will be high fences around both areas to prevent lead theft, as required by our insurers. The West end of the church will remain free of scaffolding and we will continue to use both the West door and the cloister door during the work. Although the inside of the church will not be affected directly, it will be necessary to protect the organ with sheeting against damage from possible dust entry, but it should remain playable throughout.
We hope work to lower the ground level outside the East end of the church and improve the drainage there can be scheduled to start soon after the completion of this roofing work. We expect to fund this work from John Taylor's bequest (part of which was used with other funds in renewing the lighting system in 2012). This work is needed urgently because the ground level is higher than the floor of the church and penetrating water is now causing increasing damage to the stonework in the ambulatory and at the east end of St Patrick's Chapel.
Before the major work starts on the roofs at the East end, we shall be carrying out temporary repairs to make the main high-level roof water-tight, by replacing missing tiles using a large cherry picker, as we did in 2011. However, this is only a temporary measure. The whole of the roof is in need of replacing within the next few years, as many of the Victorian tiles have reached the end of their life and much of the torching has been lost. The lack of sarking means that any loss of tiles due to wind or frost damage admits rainwater to the roof space. As an indication of the urgency of this task, the condition of the roof has led to the building being recently added to the Historic England "at risk" register. To achieve the replacement of the rest of the roof will require a further major grant, and will also need accompanying fund raising, as at present we have only part of the contribution that will be needed in addition to the grant.
[* Since writing this news item, the grant from the Listed Places of Worship: Roof Repair Fund has been increased to £85k, reducing the contribution from our Restoration Fund to this phase of work to £20k and leaving a larger balance towards the contribution that we will need for the next phase of roof renewal.]