News from the Church Warden;
As you all may know during the summer we had a thunderstorm and high winds that resulted in some of the render falling off St. Micheal’s Church Tower. As a result we are in discussions with Architects and builders and indeed the Church buildings department of Exeter Diocese to establish what needs to be done to restore the tower to a safe and aesthetically pleasing condition.
The Church is in fact a grade 2* which makes it subject to lots of do’s and don’ts and as it is 2 star rated it is one of only a few in the country. So we are looking at the repair of or the removal of the existing render and will advise as we go forward as to what is to be done.
Whilst this is ongoing we have had the Church bells serviced and some serious maintenance completed just this week and I had the chance to climb the tower with the engineer to inspect the work and was amazed at the sight of the magnificent bells all cradled and supported at the top of the tower, all the metal frameworks have had three coats of primer and topcoat and the wooden supports have been treated and in some places replaced . This was the first time I had climbed a tower to see bells where they hung and was truly inspired at the thought of how they were first installed all those hundreds of years ago with only mechanical tools and equipment and also to learn that the engineer who serviced them for us is one of only twenty in this country and only thirty world wide able to do this work
John Chapman
Church Warden
