St. Mary's Church, March, Cambs

Sadly at approximately 10.15am on Monday 15th March

St. Mary's Church was set ablaze.

Our beautiful 130 year old church is a shell for now but the memories remain. We already have plans to rise from the ashes.

The following letter sets out the progress made up to November 2010:

Restoration of St. Mary’s Church, March

It’s now over 8 months since our beautiful church was destroyed by fire. Since then we have been working hard with our Architect, Shona McKay, to assess the extent of the damage, develop detailed plans, and seek the necessary permissions to enable the first major phase of the restoration work to take place.

During this time we have been heartened by the love, prayers and support shown by so many people in March and much further afield. The total received in donations has now climbed to about £40,000 which will be used to meet costs of furnishing the interior of the Church which are not all covered by insurance. We have tried hard to thank groups and individuals personally but some people gave anonymously or did not include an address with their gift. We are extremely grateful to them all. We would also like to thank our local newspapers and local radio for their help in publicising events.

We are at last in a position to confirm that work on restoring the roof, windows and damaged stonework will begin within the next month and should be completed in November 2011. The contract for the work has been awarded to E. Bowman and Sons of Stamford, Lincolnshire. Bowman has extensive experience in the repair of listed buildings including Ely Cathedral and Southwell Minster in Nottingham. Their most prestigious recent project completed in 2010 was the £5.7 million complete restoration of the home of Horace Walpole at Strawberry Hill in Twickenham.

Bowman has their own stonemason’s yard and has the capacity to produce the magnificent roof trusses for the nave roof of St. Mary’s in their own workshop. They have experience working with specialist subcontractors and trades to complete the reconstruction of St Mary’s Church to the highest standard.

One of the first tasks will be to erect a temporary roof structure to keep the building weather tight.

We are delighted that the people of March will soon be able to see some progress made on restoring the Church. Once work is underway, the process of developing detailed plans for the interior of the Church will begin so that work can commence as soon as the first major phase has been completed.

In the mean-time, we continue to worship in our Church Hall and our Congregation is in good heart.  There is always a warm welcome for visitors and we hope that people will join us for Advent and Christmas worship (details on posters or from Revd. Jenny Webb 650852)

Yours faithfully

Anthony Chandler and Jenny Webb  -  Clergy

Sylvia Smith and George Payne – Church Wardens.

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March 2011 - update on the restoration of St Mary’s Church

Anyone driving past St Mary’s church recently may have noticed the plastic sheeting surrounding the building and wondered what is happening behind these curtains.

We are happy to report that a lot is going on as the workers of E Bowman and Sons repair and rebuild the stonework of the walls using experienced stonemasons.  Some are working on site to replicate the walls that were damaged or destroyed, by replacing carved and shaped stones some of which were barely visible from the ground but which nevertheless formed part of a building that was lovingly erected to the glory of God.

The protective covering makes it possible for work to continue despite inclement weather and will also facilitate the restoration of the roof.  It is hoped that this major phase of the work, which also includes replacement  of windows, will be completed by the end of this year.

At the same time an enormous amount of work is going on to prepare drawings and plans of the interior with all the paperwork that is necessary for faculties and other permissions to be sought and granted.

Our architect, Shona McKay, is producing imaginative and exciting solutions to the problems of re-furbishing a church that is first and foremost a place of worship but that also has flexibility to meet the needs of present and future generations.  These plans are being drawn up with the full co-operation and involvement of the congregation of St Mary’s and we look forward with eager anticipation to seeing them become reality during 2012.

As we enter Lent we continue to hold all our usual services nearby in the Church Hall and enjoy welcoming visitors, especially those who may like to join us for our Mothering Sunday and Easter Celebrations.

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May 2011 

Press Release from Rev’d Anthony Chandler Rector of March St Mary Church at Westry, March PE15 0BA

Tel: 01354 652894

email: anthonychandler@btinternet.com