The Church of St Mary the Virgin, Mellor. Fabric Report 2012

Post date: Mar 20, 2013 9:28:39 PM

The Quinquennial Inspection Report carried out in July 2012 identified various works to be carried out, a number of which were classified as urgent. Many of the urgent problems relate to the boiler room. There is significant dry rot in the roof, walls and floor and the basement area has been subject to flooding. There are ventilation and water ingress problems and repairs will be needed to the chimney, stonework, roof and gutters above the boiler room. A specialist firm had to be brought in to remove the asbestos ceiling before any other work could begin.

Scaffolding was put up at the east end of the church in order to remove plaster and expose roof timbers as there is evidence of extensive wet rot. The roof area needs to be left to ventilate after removing debris and the exposed stonework needs to be left to dry out, especially on the north wall because it adjoins the boiler room. A number of people have suggested that the east wall should have the plaster removed to leave all the sanctuary with exposed stonework.

There are still leaks through the roof covering above the Vestry.

At the time of writing, we await estimates and tenders for the work. However, we do know that it will be a huge expense to bear, of thousands of pounds, and it will make very heavy demands on our resources. The possibilities of additional funding from other sources are being investigated.