From Pews to Pods – All Souls Church Finally Starts on Site

This week sees the much anticipated project at All Souls Church in Bolton start on site.

All Souls is set to become a modern, multi-functional space for the local community and people of Bolton. It aims to be a ground breaking national flagship project that will turn a disused historic church into a community centre for all local people whilst offering community engagement, training and educational opportunities throughout the 52 week construction programme.

Following on from The Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) confirming a grant of £3.3million for the project in 2009, the Churches Conservation Trust (CCT) and All Souls’ Crompton Community Centre Trust have been working hard with OMI Architects (Lead Architect), Alan Gardner Associates (Heritage Building Surveyor), Poole Dick Associates (Quantity Surveyors), Buro 4 (Project Manager), Scott Hughes Design (Structural Engineers) and Hoare Lea (M&E Services), to make the project a reality.

Restoration plans to the Grade II listed Church include taking out the existing pews and replacing them with a community centre - made up of two ‘pods’ that will sit within the church building - "a building within a building" - which will help leave the historic fabric largely untouched. These innovative new structures will be the first of their kind in the UK, with high-level walkways giving people a unique perspective on All Souls architecture and stained glass windows.

Walter Carefoot & Sons have secured the project as Principal Contractor and have procured the Heritage package with Lambert Walker who will be undertaking a sensitive restoration of the external fabric whilst the new facilities are being constructed internally by Carefoot. These will include a large flexible events space, which will be used for community activities and conferences, meeting rooms, a specialist social media centre and production suite, an informal learning space in the side chapel, lettable offices and a ground floor café.

Carefoot will be working closely with Lambert Walker and the National Heritage Training Group (NHTG) as All Souls also becomes a ‘living classroom’ for traditional craft skills training offering a range of learning opportunities for local Schools, Colleges, Universities, members of the public and professional crafts people.

Details of the NHTG, HLF funded Building Traditional Skills placements on offer are being advertised via www.nhtgskills.org and further information of the events being run will be advertised in the press alongside CCT’s, Lambert Walker’s and Carefoot’s own websites in the coming weeks.

Carefoot have been established since 1929, and are a family-run business to this day. Long-standing relationships have been developed with many Local Authorities in the Northwest including Bolton Council, Blackburn with Darwen Council and Lancashire County Council. Carefoot have just been reappointed on the Bolton Council Contractors Framework and have a number of projects on site in the Bolton area. Carefoot’s relevant experience includes the award winning £2 million restoration of Central Library in Blackpool for Blackpool Council, and the renovation of St Mary’s Church for Lancashire County Council into conservation and design studios for the County’s Museum Services. Current projects on site include Manchester Road Railway Station at Burnley, Bolton North 6th Form College, extensions and new build works to schools in Southport, Preston and Manchester, and several offices, hospital and residential care homes refurbishments throughout the region.

Carefoot have chosen Lambert Walker as their Heritage Subcontractor due to their unrivalled passion for restoration, and their dedication to conserving the historical properties of Great Britain. Over 25 years of experience working on Cathedrals, Stately Homes and Churches their quality of workmanship has seen Lambert Walker achieve National Winner in the Building Conservation Category of the 2012 RICS awards for its conservation work at Ordsall Hall Museum, Salford.