A few years on from receiving their Friends Award, we get an update from St Michael’s Church in Llanfihangel y Creuddyn, Wales, about how the grant from the award enabled the damp and dangerous church tower to be fully restored.
“There were any twists and turns along the way as old buildings have a habit of throwing up unexpected surprises and not in a good way, and this added to the difficulty and cost,” shares Peter, who led the project team at the church.
St Michael’s were making urgent repairs to their church – and doing so in a way that would benefit the local community and attract visitors.
“The community wanted the church to be put back in good order and to be able to appreciate its special qualities,” explains Peter.
“The most striking feature of the church – the massive tower – is a much-loved local landmark. Yet despite standing over the village for over 700 years, most people who have lived here all their lives had never been up it – and for very good reason.
“It was dark, damp and dangerous and even if you climbed the wonky ladders to the middle and upper floors, there were plenty of gaps and rotten floorboards to fall through... Even so, the feeling you got when going up there was amazing – a sense of stepping back centuries, which gave you goosebumps.”
Additional costs, new solutions
But as they were going about repairing the church, new problems arose.
“In particular, there was a lot more rotten timber in the tower than we had imagined. All the beam ends needed repairing or strengthening and all the floorboards needed replacing before the new stairs could be put in place,” says Peter.
“We are especially grateful to the National Churches Trust, who are an excellent and practical charity, dedicated to helping communities to look after churches and make them open to all. They were the biggest provider of matched funding, and when things got tough, their members voted us an additional £10,000 to help towards the extra costs, which was a big help.
“We have taken a big step forward and the church is ready for the wider community to make greater use of it and to treat it as the centre piece of the community’s heritage. The tower is now capable of providing a spectacular heritage experience and Tower Tours could provide an income stream to help maintain this wonderful church.”