January - April 2025: An opportunity to see our conservators at work!

If you call into the church between 10 and 4 most working days you will see our talented team of Conservators - Peter, Jay, Clare and Oliver of Peter Martindale Conservation at work atop some really impressive scaffolding – 12 tons of it!

The conservators started their meticulous and painstaking work in mid January 2025.  They made really good progress in carefully cleaning the walls, wall paintings and friezes as well as the stone window surrounds and the string course with its many different paterae designs that run along the length of the nave just below the roof. Archangel Micheal emerged from his dense shroud of cobwebs, was cleaned and any detaching paint flakes are being stabilised. Where paint has been lost it was retouched to match the original. Work on our other two archangels Gabriel and Raphael followed, as did stabilisation of detatching plaster and the timber roof lining.

We could see how much brighter the magnificent archangels and walls would be, as well as how the newly cleaned stone window surrounds would look almost like new!

The windows cleaned up beautifully

Peter discovered more about the earlier schemes of painting beneath the plain paint, including lettering and other colours - areas of earlier green and blue were found. There is also evidence of some retouching of the angels - perhaps dating from the 1930’s.

Peter muses on earlier schemes of painting hidden below what we see today

Peter muses on retouching

At the end of February beginning of March the team moved onto the south wall, which they completed in early April. 

We maintained Open House throughout, giving people the opportunity to call in and see how the conservation and cleaning work was progressing, and also get an up close view of the conservators working on a screen at ground level. A ‘Meet the Conservator’ event was held in April and there was a real buzz in the air as over 100 people of all ages took the opportunity to meet the conservators and find out more about their work and the techniques they used. 

The contract is being run on our behalf by Chedburn Codd architects but for questions  please contact admin@discoverchristchurch.org.uk  

We are so grateful to our funders The National Lottery Heritage Fund, the Bradford on Avon Preservation Trust, Pilgrim Trust, ChurchCare and community donors who together have made all of this possible. Thank you!

The conservators’ painstaking work to return Christ Church’s Archangels Gabriel, Michael and Raphael (left to right) to their former glory. The central archangel Michael is often mistaken for St George as he is seen slaying a dragon.