Earlier this month, the government announced that the University Church has received a grant of £422,000 from the Culture Recovery Fund to replace the nave roof and to carry out some high level stonework repairs to the pinnacles and the south clerestory. These repairs were identified as urgent in the Quinquennial Inspection which was carried out by Mark Hammond, the Surveyor of the Fabric, earlier this year. The works began a month ago, and we are making good progress. Savvy Group, the contractor appointed, is a local Oxfordshire firm. The hope is that the work will be completed by March 31st 2022. 

In planning this project, we have been assisted by our Fabric Advisory Committee, chaired by Professor William Whyte, and Mark Hammond, the Surveyor of the Fabric. The project is managed by a small group, which includes Nicholas Hardyman, Felix Leach, Tess Blenkinsop, Kevin Harris and me. We have reviewed carefully a number of options in relation to energy saving measures and we have paid very careful attention to the advice of the structural engineer. The beams of the roof date from 1490 and were given by King Henry VII from his estate in Shotover. We have had to pay careful attention to questions about any additional weight caused by any further interventions on the roof. We plan to do some further investigative work in order to explore whether solar panels might be added at a future date. In all of this, we are seeking to conserve the fabric as much as possible and we are keen to ensure that the contractors adopt a sensitive conservation approach using traditional methods as much as possible. Although the previous roofing dates only from 1931, we will be seeking to ensure that the new roof lasts much longer. One of the ways in which we will be doing this is by ensuring that there is better ventilation.

Alongside the external works, there will be some internal works associated with the project. In the course of the next week, there will be a mobile elevated working platform (or MEWP) in Church, and this will mean that access to some areas within the church will be restricted. Please note that in the course of the next week, you may find it easier to access the building via the Radcliffe Square entrance rather than the High Street. Services will carry on as usual with Morning Prayer at 9.00am and the Eucharist at 12.15pm in the Chancel. The purpose of the exercise is to perform a thorough inspection of the internal beams and panelling. Towards the end of the week, the contractors will fit dust covers over the organ to prevent any damage and place a high level net to ensure that there will be no risk of any debris falling from the roof onto the nave floor below. This means that the gallery at the West End will probably be out of action for the foreseeable future - my apologies to those members of the congregation who tend to sit up there.

We hope to minimise disruption as much as possible. You will appreciate that this work is absolutely essential and my hope is that within the next six months we will be able to restore the roof to its former glory so that the curious assembly of plastic buckets which have occasionally littered the floor of St Mary’s in the course of the last two years will become a distant memory. The grant from the Culture Recovery Fund will have a transformative effect in enabling us to complete the roof work and carry out urgent stonework repairs.

We shall keep you posted as the project progresses over the next few months. I will be very happy to respond to any questions which you may have about the project. Please don’t hesitate to get in touch.

William Lamb,

Vicar