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Heritage Roofing
Heritage roofing - maintaining our iconic buildings
The UK is home to some of the most iconic buildings in the world, from stunning churches and cathedrals to historic stately homes. Each and every one of these remarkable feats of architecture requires regular maintenance to ensure they remain in the very best condition, allowing them to be enjoyed for generations.
Cathedral Care
Restoration and upkeep of cathedrals
There are some 42 Anglican cathedrals in the UK, not to mention 20 or so Catholic cathedrals. Cathedrals form the most important collection of historic buildings in England. The largest and most ancient are internationally famous, the smallest are usually among the most significant buildings in their region and even the most recent are architectural masterpieces.
Master Craftsmen
Championing our heritage with modern craftsmanship
Twenty years ago, English Heritage (now Historic England) published its first-ever Register of Buildings at Risk across England, which featured nearly 2,000 buildings and monuments that were ‘neglected, broken and unloved’. Recently Historic England was delighted to announce that over two-thirds of those buildings were now safe, in both urban and rural areas right across the country.
Traditional Lime
Lime: it’s better for buildings – and for the environment
It is now fairly well known that cement is not good for old buildings and that lime mortar should be used. But why? What are the advantages and what are the disadvantages? In order to begin to answer those questions it is necessary to understand the nature of traditional building, the process by which buildings used to be built, and how it differs from modern construction, the process by which we build today.
Audio Visual
Audio visual equipment in church buildings
This guidance is issued by the Church Buildings Council under section 55(1)(d) of the Dioceses, Mission and Pastoral Measure 2007. As it is statutory guidance, it must be considered with great care. The standards of good practice set out in the guidance should not be departed from unless the departure is justified by reasons that are spelled out clearly, logically and convincingly.
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CRE Events
After the Midlands, onward to Milton Keynes
"CRE Midlands reminded me of the giddy days when it first began – the venue was packed with exhibitors and visitors and there was a busy atmosphere. The whole thing looked great."
Insurance
You need to ensure that reasonable precautions are in place at your church to keep it safe for those who use it. To do this, you need to think about what might cause harm to people.
You will then need to decide if the precautions already in place are adequate. If they are not, you may need to identify further action to prevent any danger. When done formally, this is known as a risk assessment.
Church Maintenance
Church maintenance and repair: Calendar of Care
Just as prevention is always better than cure, maintenance is preferable to major repairs. But, such repairs may not always be avoidable. Church Care offers a monthly guide in our coming issues Starting in Spring
We can help you understand the common problems and areas that need your special attention, and give you tips for regular maintenance schemes.
Pest Control
Michael Palin warns of pest threat to churches
Michael Palin is supporting the future of the UK’s historic churches and chapels with a voiceover for a new animated film. The 80 second animation, produced for the National Churches Trust, highlights why churches are some of the nation’s best loved buildings.
Town Halls
The history of the great Victorian Town Halls of Northern England
From industrial squalor to civic pride, the story behind some of the most impressive buildings of the North involve a unique mix of economics, grand designs and noble sentiments within communities.
Lead Roofing
Lead is one of the oldest materials in the roofing industry and is still commonly used throughout the world today.
Lead roofing is a traditional roofing method which has been used in the industry for hundreds of years, and is therefore proven to be extremely reliable. Lead roofing, and sand-cast lead, in particular is ideal for old buildings such as churches or historical renovations, whereas milled lead roofing is a mass-produced alternative, used for precision and accuracy in homes and commercial buildings alike.
Lightning Protection
When lightning strikes are you protected against this act of God?
The issue of lightning protection in churches is one that has exercised this publication for many years. In this four-part series of spotlights on the issue we will be revisiting various aspects of the subject, beginning with an overview of current thinking.
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Michelmersh wins the Architect’s Choice Award for Whitty Theatre
On November 10th the Brick Development Association hosted the prestigious 40th Brick Awards ceremony which entailed a special accent of glamour for the ruby celebration that rewards exemplary brick design and construction. Michelmersh had yet another successful year, grasping the accolade of Architect’s Choice award for the Whitty Theatre designed by van Heyningen and Haward Architects.
Niamh Cronin, Project Architect at van Heyningen and Haward Architects, said: “The volume of the auditorium at the Whitty Theatre is expressed in brick both externally and internally. We looked at dozens of bricks to find the right colour and texture appropriate for the heritage setting of the School’s grade II listed house as well as a brick that would create a warm and intimate atmosphere within the theatre auditorium. As we could not find a standard brick to meet our requirements, a bespoke Luckley mix from the Freshfield Lane Synthesis range was created especially for the project. The building sits elegantly within its context, and creates a state of the art theatre for students and the local community. It has been a fantastic project to work on, and winning a brick award for the project is an honour to be proud of.”
The York Handmade Brick Company wins prestigious health and safety award
The York Handmade Brick Company, based at Alne, near Easingwold has won a prestigious award for its outstanding health and safety record.
The award, presented by the British Ceramic Confederation, recognises the crucial work that The York Handmade Brick Company has done in enhancing workplace safety over the years.
For the last two decades the family-run company has been fully committed to ‘The Ceramic Industry Health and Safety Pledge’, a bold industry wide promise to engage in a process of continuous improvement in health and safety.
Award sponsors have taken the lead in battery recycling
The front cover of our latest issue shows the roof of the London Oratory, the magnificent Roman Catholic Church in the Diocese of Westminster. The project to reroof the building was the winner of the Lead Contractors Association’s prestigious Murdoch Award in 2013.
Martin UK Roofing Systems Ltd, who carried out the commission, used BS EN 12588 rolled lead from ALM, part of the 2iM Group, which again sponsored this year’s Murdoch Awards to recognise the UK’s very best in leadwork contracting. As a niche competition open only to specialist contractors, the awards highlight restorations on some of the country’s most iconic buildings, and also some of the smaller, less fashionable, but no less detailed projects.
ALM’s rolled lead sheet is now produced using material recovered from car batteries by another 2iM Group company, Envirowales. The group also includes Jamestown Metals Glasgow, Jamestown Resources Dublin and Royston Lead Barnsley.
Another busy year sees heating specialists in action across the country
Christmas worship will be a more comfortable experience for the congregation at St Mary’s Without-the-Walls in Handbridge, Chester. Stoke-on-Trent heating specialists Mellor and Mottram completed the installation of a new system in the 19th-century building at the beginning of November, allowing worshippers time to get used to the new-found warmth before Advent.
The church was built in 1887 to replace the original St Mary’s On-the-Hill, which is now a heritage centre inside the city walls.
The new system comprises two gas boilers from Rinnai, the award-winning manufacturer based in nearby Runcorn. The boilers feed radiators from the Jaga range, featuring low surface temperature for added safety of the congregation.
Christmas entertaining – be prepared with a Mogo folding table!
At this time of year, you may well be thinking about upcoming gatherings of friends and family, especially if you plan to host a party yourself and cater to a lot more people than you usually would. It’s great to be surrounded by people at Christmas, but how can you possibly get everyone round the dinner table?
Mogo Direct has the perfect solution for you. They offer a range of brilliant value, premium quality folding tables which are ideal for welcoming more guests than usual, at home or at your event venue. Their main range covers plastic, wooden and metal folding tables in all shapes and sizes. Round, square and rectangular designs are available with centre-folding, adjustable legs and other handy features available.
Alternative choices for music accompaniment in today’s church
Many churches are finding it increasingly difficult to obtain the services of competent, reliable musicians to accompany congregational singing, yet for a huge number of church denominations communal singing forms an ongoing, popular and significant part of their service format. Anyone who has been to a service where the congregation hesitantly sings unaccompanied will be aware of the importance of a good musical accompaniment.
In recent years new styles of contemporary worship music have achieved popularity. While it is true that some churches now only sing contemporary songs (often accompanied by a worship band), most choose a middle path, adding favourite modern songs to their traditional hymn repertoire. However, the musical skills and instrument(s) required to effectively accompany contemporary music are often quite different to those for traditional church music, thereby exacerbating the problem of finding suitably skilled musicians.
What factors are important?
In order to evaluate accompaniment options objectively, it is important first to understand the musical requirements specific to the successful accompaniment of congregational singing. Unlike the passive task of listening to music, several variables have to be right in order to promote enthusiastic, confident singing in church. For any given tune, the speed, pitch, number of verses – even the length of the pause between verses – will need to be as close as possible to how your congregation is accustomed (or wants) to sing it. An often overlooked fact is that each congregation develops their own “style” over time, so suddenly demanding they sing everything differently from now on is rarely successful!
What options are available?
Essentially there are three categories of product: audio recordings, midi files or a portable church music player unit. These are discussed below:
Audio recordings (audio CDs and mp3 files)
The use of audio recordings is nothing new. Poor-quality tape recordings of hymn tunes were a feature of many crematoria as far back as the 1960s. Although better than nothing, audio formats were (and still are) generally unable to offer the flexibility needed for effective accompaniment of congregational singing. Advances in digital recording techniques now afford a much better quality of sound, but the lack of key requirements as outlined above, coupled with the inherent clumsiness in manipulating multiple audio tracks during a church service, have prevented widespread popularity of the use of audio CDs and mp3 files.
Other problems associated with audio format recordings are lack of adequate repertoire, the often unwanted presence of the recorded local acoustic, and the inevitable performance preferences of the musicians involved, e.g. tempo, “artistic interpretation” of the words etc. In other words, the chances of an audio recording matching how a particular congregation usually sings that tune are slim.
Midi files
A purely digital recording format, the midi file, opened other avenues in the 1980s. Again however, many of the same drawbacks and inflexibility in playback as are associated with audio formats could not easily be overcome. Self-contained midi file players became available, as did collections of hymn tunes in various midi formats. For non-technically minded end users the difficulties of changing the number of verses and orchestration remained while,since midi file players were never designed for church use, they often didn’t have any usable pipe organ sounds for playing traditional hymn tunes and Christmas carols. Another fundamental in the lack of success of this format was, again, lack of sufficient repertoire to fully cover a typical church year.
Church music players
Various companies have attempted to provide a solution in the form of a dedicated midi-based player unit, pre-loaded with a fixed selection of hymn tune recordings, ever since the 1980s. Most were little more than a midi file player with some midi files built in, and all lacked flexibility. Although of some use to missionaries etc, the limited repertoire of tunes and poor sound quality of these early attempts meant they fell far short of providing an effective solution for a church.
Responding to this unsatisfactory situation, Hymn Technology Ltd took on the challenge of designing a completely new portable system, purpose-built for the accompaniment of congregational singing, which could successfully substitute in the absence of a good musician and/or instrument. The result, the ground-breaking Hymnal Plus, offers tremendous versatility coupled with unmatched ease of use and a huge, open-ended repertoire.
What’s different about the Hymnal Plus?
Ease of use
Operation of the Hymnal Plus is very intuitive using the large touch screen display, and users need no musical or technical knowledge. Essential variables such as speed, pitch, number of verses and length of pause between verses can all be altered with simple, dedicated + and – buttons, so playback can easily be adjusted to suit the congregation. The Playlist feature enables storage (and naming) of all the music for services in advance, for playback whenever required. Personal customisations (adjustments to speed, pitch etc) are all stored with each tune in a playlist, so button-pushing during a service is reduced to pressing the Start button at the appropriate times.
Other unique features include a hymn search facility and on-screen display of first line of words and tune name. An infra-red remote control handset is included for added accessibility.
Repertoire
Pre-loaded with a broad-based repertoire of at least 2,750 tunes*, both traditional and contemporary (including a collection of popular incidental music and music for weddings and funerals), the Hymnal Plusis easily upgradeable over time and owners are able to purchase additional repertoire as needed.
* Actual number varies by region
Sound quality
The Hymnal Plus enables the user to choose the orchestration for any particular choice of tune. The internal sound engine has been custom designed specifically for church use, offering a stunning range of realistic pipe and electronic organs and orchestral voices. Over 200 preset orchestrations make sound selection child’s play. A drum rhythm backing can also be added to any orchestration when appropriate.
Flexibility
For complete convenience the Hymnal Plus also plays user-supplied midi and mp3 files, which are stored on its compact flash memory card. These files can also be included as items in playlists.
Options
Optional features include:
- Video output for lyrics and text display via projector or TV monitor (with auto-advance of lyrics)
- Qwerty keyboard for direct text entry
- Soft carry case
- Rechargeable NiMH battery pack
- Psalm Player, for interactive accompaniment of psalms etc
Hymnal Plus - the ultimate worship music solution
Hymn Technology Ltd was established in 1995 to market and distribute an American electronic hymn player in the UK. Directors Martin Phelps and Alan Kempster, who between them had amassed over 50 years experience in the organ industry, saw the huge potential for a unit that could accompany congregational singing in the absence of either musician(s) or instrument(s).
The US manufactured product sold well, but it became apparent after a while that churches needed a far more advanced and complete solution to what was clearly becoming a huge problem - the lack of competent musicians in churches up and down the land who were prepared to make the commitment to be available every Sunday.
Lightning strikes Irish church
Killasmeetia Church has been given protection by LPTG Member in Ireland, ADS & Associates of Co Clare, having been struck by lightning.
Many believe that a simple rod at the top or highest point of a building constitutes a lightning protection system, however this case study illustrates that this is not the case.
The church is located in the middle of Ireland and was struck by lightning a few years ago. However the church did have a lightning rod on the cross (the highest point) at the opposite end of the building to where it was struck.
No ordinary work of art - architectural ceramics firm skills in demand by the art world
Architectural ceramics specialist, Darwen Terracotta and Faience, was chosen by Charles Holland of commissioned artists Ordinary Architecture to build the artwork Foundation Myths. This pioneering sculpture has been installed at the new Artists’ Garden at the York Art Gallery. The work comprises ten, life-sized, ceramic tree stumps arranged geometrically in two rows to echo the foundations of a former building.
Ayreshire leadwork specialists complete new President's golf resort refurbishment
Leadwork specialists Nova Contracts, based in Kilmarnock, have recently finished extensive leadwork improvements to the 5 star Turnberry golf resort owned and operated by new USA President Elect Donald Trump. As part of the 200 million pound refit the company's craftsmen built and installed 94 lead dormers in the accommodation area and replaced 300 sq m of lead cornice-ledge in the hotel's ballroom and hospitality roofing area.
An extensive 18 month refurbishment programme took place and Turnberry re-launched on 1st June 2016 with the redesigned Open Championship golf course, The Ailsa, available for play for the first time. Nova worked in partnership with DM Roofing, who provided tiling, joinery and roughcasting services on the Turnberry project.
Spire restoration at St James Church, New Brighton wins King of Prussia Gold Medal
The winner of The King of Prussia Gold Medal was announced by the National Churches Trust and the Ecclesiastical Architects and Surveyors Association at a ceremony held at St Mellitus College, London on 3 November 2016.
The King of Prussia Gold Medal for church repair and conservation architecture was won by architects Lloyd Evans Prichard for their work to restore the spire of Sir George Gilbert Scott’s St James Church, New Brighton, Merseyside. St James Church received a £500 prize.
LSA Young Leadworker of the Year 2017 – competition now open
Are you a leadworker under 30 years of age? If so, don’t miss your chance to give your career a boost and gain recognition for your skills. The Lead Sheet Association is launching its search to find the 2017 Young Leadworker of the Year.
The competition is open to leadworkers in the UK – whether you are self-employed or working for a contractor. You just need to be under 30 years of age on the closing date, Friday 24th February 2017.
Custom built sound installation for New Testament Church of God in Willesden
The New Testament of God Church in Willesden commissioned Northamptonshire-based SA Sound Services to handle the audio element of an extensive refurbishment, triggered by the installation of a new wraparound balcony seating around 200 people.
"With a full AV and sound upgrade to carry out, we took the opportunity to put in all the cables at the same time," recalls proprietor Steve Ashley, "all the video cables, and runs of analogue and digital cables for the PA system, all under the floor."
Members offer 25 years peace of mind
The trade body that represents the leadworking industry – and guarantees quality in that industry – is the Lead Contractors’ Association (LCA). The LCA was formed in 1984 to promote quality standards in leadwork and now comprises over 70 specialist contractors committed, supported by 15 associate members who supply materials and ancillary services.
Members comprise every business model, from sole traders and partnerships to established corporate bodies. Whether they employ their own workforce or engage teams of subcontractors, members are required to take full responsibility for the purchase and application of the lead sheet under their control.
Lead casting by John Williams & Co
Kent-based roofing and heritage conservation specialists John Williams & Company have recently celebrated 150 years of working on prestigious historic and ecclesiastical buildings. The company offers a bespoke lead casting service, using traditional moulded sand techniques to create seamless lead plaques and decorative features. Here they give us an insight into this aspect of their work - if you would like a quotation for a lead casting or just some advice please contact them directly.
Method of Sand Casting
Stage 1
A template is made in the exact form as the required finished lead feature. Templates can be mafrom any material so long as it is relatively smooth. Sand moulds will take the shape of even the finest of details so if materials such as natural timber are used the mould is likely to also incorporate the grain of the wood in the casting process.
King of Prussia Gold Medal 2016 - Shortlist
Five projects have been shortlisted for the 2016 King of Prussia Gold Medal church architecture award for repair and conservation work, run by the Ecclesiastical Architects and Surveyors Association and the National Churches Trust.
The winner will be announced by Prince Nicholas von Preussen at a special awards ceremony to be held at St Mellitus college, London SW5 on Thursday 3 November 2016. Also at the awards ceremony, The Duke of Gloucester KG GCVO ARIBA, will announce the 2016 winner of the Presidents' Award for new church architecture.
Get gutters ready for Autumn – Scoop out and then install Brushes
Your guttering helps protect your house, keeping rain and snow from causing water damage to your roof, rafters, exterior and interior walls. Climbing ladders in miserable weather to clear out blocked gutters is something no one enjoys. To help you get your gutters ready for Autumn now, Rainclear are offering a specially designed GutterScoop™ at just 99p with every order of Gutter Guard Brushes.
Why fit gutter brushes?
Once installed the Hedgehog™ Gutter Guard Brushes mean any falling leaves and debris get caught on its spikes leaving the rainwater to run clear and the debris to simply blow away when dry. Take action now so you can relax when Autumn arrives.
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