Church Tower renovation
Over the last few years the Friends of Garway Church and the Parochial Church Council have carried out fundraising to raise the considerable amount of money necessary to repair the church tower. The deteriorating fabric of the church had resulted it being placed on Historic England’s At Risk register in 2023 and the condition of the roof had worsened during the storms of early 2024.
Grants had been obtained from the Hereford Historic Churches Trust, Laslett’s Hinton Charity and William A Cadbury Charitable Trust and we received expert advice from the diocese of Hereford.
We also received considerable help with fundraising from Garway Live and Garway Spice Girls.
As a result of their efforts work commenced on the tower in September 2024 and lasted 8 weeks. The work involved the erection of scaffolding around the tower and the replacement of the slipped roof tiles and repointing of the damaged masonry. During the works it was found that the masonry had deteriorated to a far greater extent than initially thought.
Guttering above the chancel was also cleared of debris.
The work was undertaken by Wayne Hill, a local builder with extensive experience of restoration under the supervision of Jane Chamberlain of Caroe and Partners, architects.
Due to the presence of bats in the tower, the Bat Conservation Trust and Natural England were closely involved in the planning of the work.
A survey of the cracks in the tower was carried out by Brian Kedward, a volunteer of the Bat Conservation Trust, on the 29th September and confirmed that the bats were not present in the areas where work was to be carried out.
The work was completed and the scaffolding dismantled and removed in the first week of November.