Category: Site Visit

The Village Hall at St John’s Church

2/11/2016

post by Becky Payne

“We are aware that some people call it the church and some people call it the village hall”

Three of us went to visit St John the Baptist at Stadhampton on Saturday 15th October. I was especially pleased as I had last visited St John’s in 2013 when the builders were still in situ, scaffolding was still up in the nave and the cement was still wet in the arch leading into the new toilets. It was a project I was very interested in as it is one of a few villages setting up an arrangement whereby the Parochial Church Council (PCC) and the village share the responsibility of looking after and managing their church building.

It was great to see it two years on – the buildings work finished and the building being used by both the congregation and the community. Absolutely a win-win for both village and church.

Stadhampton, a small village of 800 had really been lacking a community space since the 1960s when the old hall had burnt done. They had been using the school hall but this was only available outside school use and was becoming less available as the school increased in size. There had been talk of the need for a village hall for several years and a committee set up who looked at various options including new build. At the same time, the church had a very small congregation, was in need of major repairs as well as being cold and damp and having no main drainage. So the PCC was very pleased when they were approached by the Village Hall Committee with the suggestion of using the church.

It cost just under £400k and took about 5 years and the church is now repaired, refurbished and is on main drainage. There are two toilets in an extension to the west end, and a fully equipped kitchen and serving area in the north aisle. The pews have gone and have been replaced by comfortable chairs. There is a retractable screen which can be lowered for the Film Club and then disappears entirely restoring the east end to how it has always looked. The base of the tower has been refurbished with modern storage cupboards and is now a comfortable vestry. The restoration of the beamed ceiling, the cleaning of the stonework, the careful design of the wooden panels around the kitchen and the new floor has created a very beautiful and calming space.

But as we know and as was emphasised by the project chair and champion, it is much more than the bricks and mortar, it is about the people. And we were met by a group of 16 people – the largest group of people that have attended one of these workshops and welcomed into a warm and comfortable building, but one that has retained a very special feeling and one that is still very much a church.

Like all similar projects, it was a challenging 5 years with moments of despair as well as celebration, but the testament of its success was those 16 people, some who had been part of the original building committee, and some – which bodes well for the future - people who have joined since completion because they wanted to come and help manage the new building. They all obviously love the space they have created and are quite rightly proud of what they now have.

Looking back during the mapping exercise, they came up with plenty of top tips especially around funding, but also about the importance of continuing to keep checking that people are ‘on side’. What came through loud and clear was that ‘you need champions’ which on one level is about having a supportive bishop (which in their diocese, they do!) but also that any project of this complexity needs its own champion – the person who keeps it going, not just the co-ordination, but who keeps on pushing on through the setbacks and unforeseen problems and also manages to inspire others to keep on too. It was so clear that this person had been Ann Stead the Chair of the Building Committee who had fulfilled that role and was indeed still fulfilling that role! One of her top tips was that you need to keep hold of a clear vision and narrative which is one that you can articulate to funders, the community, the congregation as well as it being your own inspiration when things appear overwhelming.

Most telling for me was a member of the congregation who said that although she had been fully behind the plans from the beginning she was happy to find that the refurbished building remained very much a church. From a more personal perspective, she said that she had been worried about retiring and feared that she might become isolated. In fact, the new activities which were happening as a result of the new community space, had meant that she had plenty to do and meeting people was not an issue. Similarly, another volunteer said that she had been considering leaving the village as it was so difficult to meet people. Inspired by the project, she had volunteered to be on the management committee and the village had become home again.

Seeing photographs of the pews that had previously filled the nave, we saw during the workshop what a flexible space it has become. For the morning session we sat in a circle of chairs, and at lunchtime, three tables suddenly appeared and were arranged down the length of the nave covered in white table cloths and we ate delicious soup, bread and cake properly sitting down and then for the afternoon, those tables were rearranged to become space for the project timeline exercise.

The key for me was that just before I left, I looked back at the chancel and the screen had disappeared, the kitchen area was all clean and tidied up and all the chairs and tables had been put away except for two rows of chairs facing the altar all set up ready for the Sunday service the next morning. A truly shared space and does it matter that some people call it the church and some call it the hall? No, because it is fulfilling both roles perfectly.

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A clear vision and great design at St Michael and All Angels

28/8/2016

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post by Sophia de Sousa, The Glass-House Community Led Design

One of the elements of our Empowering Design Practices project is to visit places of worship that have made physical changes to their building, and to speak to those involved about the process and impact of those changes. We want to learn from their experience to help others, and to consider the roles of design and community in their success.

Tucked away in Witton Gilbert, a village outside Durham, is the beautiful parish church of St Michael and All Angels, which has stood there for over 800 years. It sits surrounded by natural beauty, with a churchyard bordering on Witton Dean, parkland that rises from the river below.

Like many rural parish churches, St Michael and All Angels, has undergone a series of changes to the building over time. What stands there today, though clearly a historic place of worship, is not simply a building frozen in a particular moment in time in the past. Many generations have used the building, made changes to it and done their best to make it respond their needs and to reflect their approach to worship.

A clear vision
The success of the recent reordering at St Michael’s is rooted in a clear vision, strong leadership and collaboration from both the faith and lay communities. Their vision, for a quiet Breathing Space, a project to help people find health and well-being, emerged from an open and frank conversation about what and whom the building is for. The starting point was firmly rooted in an understanding of what that particular church and its context have to offer, what makes the place special.

What is so thrilling about St Michael's is that the changes that they have made to their building have been done with such care and attention to detail. They demonstrate design responding cleverly to the values and needs of its congregation while providing new opportunities for their wider community use.

Good design matters
St Michael's wanted to make physical changes to their building which are not uncommon in reordering projects. They wanted to improve accessibility, create a more flexible gathering space, and make the building more comfortable and welcoming with the addition of toilet and kitchen facilities. The launch of the Breathing Space project gave both motivation and opportunity to make those changes happen.

The clever expansion to either side of the existing porch, completed in December 2012, created significant extra space for a toilet, office, and utility storage cupboard. The stone used on the extension was sourced (from an old ice cream parlour in Sheffield) to blend seamlessly into the existing stonework.

The conversion of part of the vestry into a kitchen, with a serving hatch through to the side aisle, and the creation of loft storage space, tackled some challenging design questions about balancing the practical with respect for the faith practices and heritage of the building.

The kitchen hatch provides a practical link through to the side aisle, where pews were removed to create a flexible space for activities. The congregation, which is thriving at St Michael’s, were keen not to lose seating space for their services, so high quality foldable chairs were purchased to provide both seating for services, and flexible arrangement of seating for a range of activities in the aisle.

Top tips
We are grateful to the Revd Canon Caroline Dick and all of those at St Michael and All Angels, who so generously shared their story and what they had learned along the way. The tips they had for those embarking on a similar project were many. Here are just a few.

Think big vision to get the small things done
Think in phases, and use your vision to support small steps.
Reach out and build partnerships.
Get your most vociferous opponents involved, help them understand your position and give them a voice in decision-making
Acknowledge and thank people for their contribution

Reposted from the Glass-House blog (2 August 2016)

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Learning from the Past: St Martin’s Bilborough

18/1/2016

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post by Louise Dredge, The Glass-House Community Led Design

I’m glad we chose clear glass. We love watching the movements of the seasons outside

Places of worship are often designed to elicit particular reactions and feelings in those who worship within them such as encouraging solemnity or celebration, or invoking the wonders of a deity or deities.

As part of our ‘Learning from the Past’ research, some of the EDP project team visited St Martin’s Church in Bilborough, Nottingham (a Church of England parish) to learn about their experience of restoring a historic building. Their church is the only surviving medieval building in Bilborough, built on high ground in the 14th century, in what was then a small rural village and is now a built-up suburb of Nottingham. A Grade II* listed building, the church has been through various phases of restoration over the past few centuries, most significantly the addition of a large modern extension in 1972, which saw one of the chancel walls demolished and the east window bricked up. By the 2000s, the church was in need of urgent repairs so the Church leaders, along with members of the congregation and the local community initiated a restoration project, led by project manager Hilary Wheat, with the support of the Heritage Lottery Fund, SPAB and other organisations.

The original nave and chancel have been brought back to life through this project, restoring the historic footprint of this place of worship. During the early stages of restoration, a mural by the artist Evelyn Gibbs was uncovered, which was thought to have been destroyed in the 1970s building project. The mural was deemed to be of significant heritage value and the group were successful in attracting funding for the full restoration of the work.

Gibbs’s mural depicts the ‘Annunciation’ scene, where the Angel Gabriel tells Mary that she will give birth to Jesus, the Son of God. Unusually for an Annunciation scene, the moment captured is set in Bilborough and St Martin’s Church is one of the buildings depicted in the background. In recognition of their efforts, the Church was awarded the SPAB John Betjeman Award 2015 for their sensitive repair of the Evelyn Gibbs murals.

As well as thoughtful and sensitive restoration of a treasured historic building, the project also provided employment and training opportunities for local people. Four heritage trainees were involved in the project, working with lead stonemason Phil Turton, learning a range of new specialist skills that have helped them to secure further work in the heritage sector.

As researchers, we were struck by the cooperation and respect shown by the different members of the community who participated in the project. Through their restoration process, the group not only protected and enhanced the building’s heritage, but also connected with and engaged their local community – inviting them to contribute to decision-making on elements of the restoration such as the choice of materials, and keeping them informed throughout.

This engagement is ongoing. The Pew Cushion Club, which is based at the Church, are creating new pew cushions for the restored church based on the design of the 19th century versions. A range of community activities and events are held at the church and there are also a number of interpretive resources for tourists and visitors.

The restoration project has made the Church a focal point for the area, provided new employment opportunities, supported a valuable community resource and protected and enhanced the heritage of an important historic building in the East Midlands.

To find out more about St Martin’s Church visit their fantastic website where you can watch short films about different aspects of their restoration project and learn about the Evelyn Gibbs mural.

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Visit to the Sheffield Buddhist Centre

14/1/2016

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post by Ruchit Purohit

The EDP team visited the Sheffield Buddhist Centre (SBC) in August 2015. Tucked away in beautiful surroundings this historic building is an old Presbytery now converted into a Buddhist centre.

We were greeted by Achara, one of the leading members of the building committee, who showed us into a very welcoming and calm room where the meeting was to take place.

The visit to the Sheffield Buddhist Centre is part of our ‘learning from the past’ strand of research. Like we did with St Luke's the workshop included a walkabout where participants are divided in three groups to reflect on architecture, heritage, faith and community use of the building. This was followed by a round table with all stakeholders aimed to map out the timeline of the process and identify crucial moments. After a relatively slow start, the workshop evolved into a rich and vibrant discussion.

Some of the key learnings from the workshop are:

Process

Leadership and decision-making – for this group one of the key aspects of success was assigning one person (Achara in this case) to take a key role in leading, negotiating and managing the project on behalf of the working committee:

It happened very consciously because one of the decisions that we made, and I am proud of, is we agreed on a design committee and we agreed the rest of the Sanga, the community, would keep out of it and wouldn’t comment

Other key aspects of the process were:

Building trust amongst the committee (putting complete trust on people you could rely on)

Volunteering was seen as a key to the process as each member devoted their time and committed to a common cause. A lot of commitment and generosity from the people that were involved.

I think this building, the building and its size and its gardens, there are huge opportunities for people to get involved with this project at different levels so it is very very engaging, it is gorgeous, I love being here. Everybody loves being here . Personally it is always a pleasure to come here and be in this space, I think anybody, from the person just walking through the door for the first time can find something to contribute to the project because of the size and the nature of the property, which I think is very important at engaging people and creating unity and creating the sense of cohesion among our community because some centres in our movement have less cohesion than we have here.

Participants also talked about using spirituality as a tool for taking the process forward and achieving clarity. Mitra or friendship is a key element in Buddhist philosophy and this helped the team to develop deep bonds and a trusting relationship with each other.

Probably the most basic one is that we have a huge emphasis in what we call ‘building Sanga, which is kind of, forming a network of friendships which forms the way of the Buddhist community and there is a huge emphasis on Sanga participating in our project …

…As conscious practitioners there is a big emphasis with that in the Buddhist community and that will manifest not only as individual friendships but as kind of helping with the work of the centre; helping making the centre look beautiful, helping with whatever work there is at the centre so we not only have gardening volunteers but we… you saw the volunteer work that was done while the building project was under way. We had volunteers doing out book keeping and helping in the office. We had volunteers who helped with cleaning and so on and so on. The whole project is supported by a mixture of members of the community giving money and member of the community giving their time and their help and their expertise to keep the whole centre running

There was also a really poignant discussion about the different fears the team had when they started and how they dealt with it.

There were fears of

dealing with a space bigger than really required

Something that someone said that lodged in my brain at one of those meetings was he said it was like a toddler and you buy him or her new clothes a size too big because you know they are going to grow in to it and it is similar with this space, it might seem vast and huge but actually it is that analogy that lodged with me as a very helpful analogy as hopefully we will grow, we weren’t going to stay as we were with quite small classes and stuff so that was very helpful and practical.

entering in a space that previously belonged to a different faith group and thus incorporated different faith elements
the risks associated with taking a Grade II listed building and converting it – what will be allowed and what won’t be?

I think we also underestimated what we were doing in an architecturally sense; we had just bought a church and we were converting it to a Buddhist centre and I think we just underestimated that this was significant, this was part of Britain’s cultural history changing

Controversy – of risking to upset the non-Buddhist community by changing the heritage. This was a key moment as the Church bell had broken and came down during roof repairs. It was decided that this will be replaced by a Buddha statue. The architect suggested to apply for planning permission and necessary sanction was granted. But still the wider community was not happy.

We were accused of pulling strings behind the public’s back with planners. It hit the BBC news website.

Achara, very wisely decided to go and meet the person who was leading this protest. A simple learning was that talking to the community before taking decisions really helps.

So I went down to see the person who was most upset and said ‘if you don’t want this to happen we won’t do it’ and at that point we came into a very different relationship, and she shared her fears… This might interest you. So first of all she was worried about the smell of curry when we arrived. Secondly they had assumed it was a 15 foot florescent Buddha and there would be parking jams all around Sheffield.

So actually it was a blessing in disguise because if, for me the big learning was it wasn’t just down to me but I feel responsible that there wasn’t enough care taken in informing local residents what we were doing. So we have a couple of minor tensions which we resolved very quickly but we could have done better.

This links to a theme that commonly comes across in most of our workshops that of understanding what is community. The building committee had to be careful of the fact that they had to deal with a different set of users (the Buddhist congregation (mitras)) but also that there was a wider community out there.

We should have entered in a relationship and friendship faster with the local community, when I say local community I mean people who are looking onto the building
Immediate residents?
Yes because there was issues around parking
Yes, parking, suspicion of noise etc

Emotions

Overall, the process proved to be very emotional for the team, throughout the different stages.

I mean this is personal too but there were three big moments for me, one was after that worst meeting I have ever been, I stopped and wondered what I had joined, and two weeks later one of the best meetings that I have ever been in where we said ‘OK, let’s go for this’. Then I just remember being very very emotional on the opening day.

The project in itself is indeed a great achievement. I left in awe that such a building had been transformed at such a scale and for a very different use still retaining a lot of its important elements. A great feat led by a humble community.

I think one of the things that I have become aware of fairly recently is that, and I think it is through this project that has taken so much of our energies and taken so much time, through this we have achieved a huge level of humility and that is born itself out on such things as electing a new chairman for the future and that sort of thing and that unity, I think, is continuing to grow and I think we should be very careful to preserve it.

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Love in Action: Learning from St Luke’s Church Oxford

13/10/2015

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post by Katerina Alexiou

A central aim of the Empowering Design Practices project is to develop methods, tools, resources and mechanisms to support people embarking on projects for refurbishing and enhancing local places of worship. But before we can develop new things, we need to look at past practice: How did other people do it? How did their journey look like? What kind of places they created? What are the pitfalls of the process and how they can be overcome?

To inform our own practice, we therefore set up a strand of work called Learning from the Past. The research includes interviews, focus groups, workshops, and a number of visits to past projects. These site visits offer a way to experience the place and engage with the people who relate to it: those who were originally involved in envisioning a new future for their building and who saw it through, but also current users, worshipers, visitors, or people using its services.

In this blog, I would like to recount our first site visit to St. Luke’s Church in Oxford and share some thoughts and observations.

The site visit
We were all excited about visiting St. Luke’s. Becky Payne (our valued expert on sustaining historic places of worship) had already written a case study about the project. St. Luke’s is not a renovation project like the ones we intend to focus on for our support, but the church was rebuilt retaining to a great extend the footprint and character of the original building. A really inspiring example, from which we felt we can learn a lot, particularly about the way the steering team led the re-design process while creatively engaging with the wider community in one of the poorer parts of Oxford.

It helped that it was a glorious day when we visited, but the first impressions approaching the building were really positive. The entry to the building was smooth and the main hall looked big, bright and tidy. The space gave the impression of a well looked after community centre but it combined a sense of spirituality. In this minimalist space, a beautiful unconventional painting of the last supper drew our attention instantly conveying so much about the principles behind the creation of this space.

The main room has cupboards all around the periphery, which are used for storage, and there is a mezzanine level on its short side. Beside the main room there is a kitchen area, and beyond that a connecting space leading to the ‘Chill out’ room - a space mainly used by children and youth groups, with sofas, a second kitchen area, a standalone sink, a pool and a juke box.

The walkabout
Following a quick lunch and introductions to the project and to each other we divided in three groups to walk around the building. Each group was tasked with discussing a different topic: architecture, heritage, and community, particularly focussing on how changes in the building have affected people’s lives and perceptions.

Participants talked about a feeling of cosiness the Chill Out room has, welcoming different types of users and different types of uses, including art, dance (from ballroom to street dance), cooking, mother and toddler group activities and even just listening to music and playing pool. All these activities happen often alongside worshipping, and the Hungarian and occasionally also the Asian Church also rent the space out for their own service.

The building was designed to allow wheelchair access, which necessitated moving the entrance to the side. This was originally met with disapproval by the local authority planners, who expected to have an entrance to such a public building on the front and at a distance from the surrounding private flats. Indeed we found out that there were many negotiations between the architect, the steering committee and the council throughout the whole process, and people in the community also came in with their perceptions and requirements about the place, whether for a small thing like the sink in the Chill Out room or something bigger, like the façade of the building.

These negotiations extended to the perception of heritage different people had as this extract from the discussion shows:

‘Surprising some of the young people find it quite difficult to adjust to the new building as they so loved the old building even thought it was falling apart and everything, they had a very strong sense of ownership over it. I think they thought ‘this brand new building doesn’t feel like our yet’.

We did some art projects; they made a Celtic cross out of clay which is hanging in there, and (…) they have got their own chalk board thing and just things that make them feel it is their building as well.’

‘In some ways we have established a new heritage haven’t we?

Mapping milestones and assets
The second part of our visit focussed on mapping milestones in the process from the start of the project until now, but also the assets associated with key events: the people, skills, tools and resources that made things happen. We used a map with some key events pre-drawn, based on the interview we had already conducted with the church warden.

It was a lively discussion and bit more disordered than we had planned! Thinking about the key events and their succession, helped participants recall and reflect on the process. Doing this as a group helped create a more complete picture. The initial phases of the project drew most of their attention, as they were rightly the most intensive, the most difficult and the most defining. The process had its highs and lows, and there were many setbacks as well as achievements.

There were plans to replace St. Luke’s going back to the 1980’s. But the journey which kicked off the transformation of St. Luke’s into what it is now started in 2005 when the steering group formed. A first proposal was designed with the help of students from Oxford Brookes University. Then around 2007 come another design, which included private flats to help generate revenue to maintain the building, but the plan didn’t get permission due to requirements relating to an elevated flood risks in the area. This also started an on-going consultation with local residents, which revealed their will to maintain the church as a community landmark and resource.

Constant community engagement was one of the key characteristics of the project that made it so successful, and so was working in partnership with other local faith and secular organisations; engaging with local media; and combining multiple sources of funding.

A key point in the discussion was when we asked the team about their values and what made them persevere in the face of numerous difficulties over a long period of time:

‘Well, we haven’t touched on faith. For us, this project was part of the outworking of our faith, not just a kind of blind optimism, it was actually looking for guidance, trying to listen’

‘We also had a fundamental belief in St Luke’s for me. I knew there needed to be a St Luke’s here. It was unlike other churches, it served a need that could not be met in other ways’

‘It was meeting the people around here and realising that St Luke’s can help people get a sense of belonging and feel valued, things that other churches aren’t able to do’

Epilogue
St Luke’s moto is ‘love in action’. This was what drove the process and what drives the group’s everyday activities and use of the space now.

During the workshop a group of three youngsters appeared on the door. They hesitated a bit to get in when they saw us, but they were immediately welcomed in. We could see they felt at home and one was confident enough to share his view about the place. I thought, maybe that is where it all starts, in giving people voice and confidence.

I feel privileged to have met the people and I have learned a lot. Below I include a list of top tips that the team suggested to us, to help others embarking on a similar journey.

Watch this space for more blogs about our visits to past projects.

Top tips from St. Luke's, Oxford

Capturing imagination – visualising the project
Ensuring a mix of skills – getting people in early
Flexible design of project – contingency
Engage the community
Be clear about what you are/your values
Patience and insistence
Design to allow mix of as many groups/users as possible
See if you can phase the project
Lottery funding useful early on (but only early on)
Divide responsibilities and respect each other’s skills

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The Village Hall at St John’s Church

A clear vision and great design at St Michael and All Angels

Learning from the Past: St Martin’s Bilborough

Visit to the Sheffield Buddhist Centre

Love in Action: Learning from St Luke’s Church Oxford

EDP

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The Village Hall at St John’s Church ﻿

A clear vision and great design at St Michael and All Angels﻿

Learning from the Past: St Martin’s Bilborough ﻿

Visit to the Sheffield Buddhist Centre

Love in Action: Learning from St Luke’s Church Oxford

EDP

Archives

Categories

The Village Hall at St John’s Church

A clear vision and great design at St Michael and All Angels

Learning from the Past: St Martin’s Bilborough