Prayer at
St Peter's Church Farnborough, Hampshire
Church of England, Diocese of Guildford

The week starts excitedly with the knocking through of the new south doorway.  The reinforcement for the arch will soon follow. Inside they continue to lay the stone floor – hope to be able to upload a photo of the finished state by the end of the week.

Yesterday the guys started to lay the new stone floor.  Watching the care and precision with which each stone is laid is both exciting and reassuring.  We really are nearly (getting) there!

It has been an exciting few months and we are now over half way through the project.  A quick summary of what has happened so far. After the excitement of finding the Wilmot vault and the two Anglesey graves things quietened down, although discovering how lacking the balcony was in the way of support, was, to say the least, interesting.  We then moved into the serious business of providing the church with a new floor.  The limecrete slab, trunking for audio and electric cables, heating pipes and the limestone screed are now all in place and the stone floor should be completed by the end of this month.  The new ramp in the south extension has also taken shape and will make access to the east end of the church so much easier for some people.

Work on transforming the south vestry is well under way and you will doubtless have seen the progress in preparing to open up the new south door.  This last week two members of the church have given a week of their time to begin building the new storage cupboards in front of the rood screen.  What are the main items left?

• the new heating system which will, we hope, help the cold and damp building gradually dry out will be commissioned
• the sound loop will be laid
• the new doors will be installed
• there are some stonework repairs to be done
• the carpet will be laid
• the building will be cleaned and then redecorated
• we will take delivery of the new welcome desk, chairs, communion table and rails

Please note, if you haven’t already, that photos are added regularly to the gallery on the website.

Apologies for not posting for some time but rest assured the work is continuing.  The limecrete was laid and has been curing well.

The site of the new ramp has been cut out and this week the first fix of the electrical and mechanical work is well underway with the trunking being positioned.  Work has also begun in the south vestry where it was interesting to discover that the front of the cupboards were load bearing!  The structural engineer has a plan! If you have walked from the lych gate up to the parish centre you will have seen that the first stage in breaking through for the new south door is underway and the new path is marked out.   Please keep praying that the work continues safely and on time.

Just when we thought the excitement was over and nothing else would be uncovered, the coffins of Arthur,    the 5th Earl of Anglesey and his wife, Mary were revealed lying to the north of the stairs down into the vault.  Mary was buried in 1719, according to the burial register “in a coffin laced with velvitt”, which was contrary  to an Act of Parliament which decreed burial in woollen to encourage the country’s woollen manufacturers.  The fine payable would have been £5.   Arthur died in 1727.  Where are the other eight members of the  Annesley family?  Well, we have to accept that we will never know, because the new floor is now being laid.

Already we have seen several layers in the floor structure go down – sand and concrete (filling the voids where burials had collapsed), followed by insulationa membrane, stainless steel mesh and then today the first pump of limecrete. The limecrete will take at least three to four weeks to dry to the point where the trunking for the heating and electrics can be laid. There may not, therefore, be a lot to report over the next weeks although the workmen will be busy starting the work on the vestry and associated drainage.  Apologies for my poor placing of the photos but I hope you enjoy them!