Restoration and Conservation

Before the Discover Christ Church! project:

Over time there had been significant water ingress both through the walls and also down through the roof due - presumably to a failure of the flashing. This resulted in bubbling and cracking of paint and also some streaking down the walls and across one of the Archangels.

Water had come through the walls as a result of blocked downpipes - partly because over many years squirrels had carried hazelnuts up onto the roof, and the shells had washed down and built up in the down pipes until they became blocked.

Before the conservation and cleaning work could start, it was imperative that the walls were allowed to dry out for 18 months. Annual checking of the downpipes is now undertaken which should prevent this problem in the future.

Once the scaffolding was up our photographer could get up close to the wall paintings and decorative features - perhaps the first time these have been accessed in over a century.

Here are a few photo’s showing what we found and saw, including not only damage but also some very impressive cobwebs!

Cleaning and conserving completed:

April 2025

Work was completed during the first week of April 2025. The scaffolding came down and the newly conserved and cleaned nave was revealed in all its glory! The clean and bright paint and increased natural light through the cleaned windows has transformed Christ Church’s nave - lifting the whole appearance and feeling of the place. Regulars and visitors alike have been ‘wowed’ by the transformation! Christ Church really is once again a fitting and beautiful setting for the increasing community uses and worship.

The revealing of two ‘windows on the past’ has been the subject of much comment: a band of the 1970’s overpaint by the tower arch has been removed to reveal the previous schemes of decoration that covered the nave walls, and a further ‘window’ in the lobby shows that the scheme continued here too.

A distinctive part of this conservation work was our ability to maintain Christ Church’s Open House throughout the conservation work, so that people could come in and see the conservators at work high up on the scaffolding as well as seeing the various techniques used up close on a screen at ground level. In April over 100 people of all ages came to a ‘Meet the Conservators’ event held jointly with Bradford on Avon Youth’s weekly drop in session.

We were thrilled that the first group to see the newly conserved and magnificent archangels was all 78 Year 6 students, along with their teaching staff plus a team of volunteers who were in attendance to help plant snowdrops in the churchyard. This was an added bonus for all involved!

Cleaning and conserving the nave walls:

January - April 2025

Thanks to the award of grants from The National Lottery Heritage Fund, The Bradford on Avon Preservation Trust, Pilgrim Trust ChurchCare and community donations we were able to appoint Peter Martindale Conservation to continue the Millenium project work that saw the conservation of the chancel and east wall.

Phase 1 mid January to end February/beginning of March 2025: cleaning & conservation of the north and west nave walls, including our magnificent archangels Micheal, Gabriel and Raphael. The window surrounds and string course with paterae were cleaned and those missing were replaced using moulds from the originals.

Phase 2 March -early April 2025: Scaffolding moved to the south wall of the nave for cleaning and conservation of the walls, string course, paterae, friezes and window surrounds.

As an important complement to this, we were able to appoint Great Panes Stained Glass of Corsham to carefully clean a century of dirt and mildew from the stained glass windows, and undertake a few minor repairs.

Please do visit the Discover Christ Church! Facebook page for film clips of the conservation work, discoveries made and also a very unusual dusting technique involving 20 foot bamboo canes!

April 2024

New energy efficient and adjustable lighting installed, better enabling a variety of uses and illuminating key heritage features of this Grade 2* listed building.