If you’ve been around for nearly 1,000 years you expect to take a few knocks.
But you don’t expect a tree to fall on you, damage your roof and make your walls unstable - which is just what recently happened to the 13th Century St Swithun’s Church in Brookthorpe, Gloucestershire.
Thankfully Nigel Hammett RIBA SCA - one of our senior architects has been the appointed Church Architect for many years and was able to step in. His role is to carry out Quinquennial Inspections and to organise the repairs to the fabric.
Over the years JCA has supervised the repair and extension to perimeter drains, resolved of internal damp that threatened carvings to the central column, overseen the repair and protection of the stained glass as well as repairs to the external joinery amongst many other conservation projects.
The lesson might be that over such a huge expanse of time, if it can happen, then it will happen and best to be prepared with your architect in place.
