Tower Restoration

Work started at the beginning of August 2007 on a £150,000 project to restore and stabilise the 15th century church tower. Grants and other funding had provided £110,000, leaving us £45,000 to raise. Additional work to the tower parapet was found to be necessary in the early stages of the work, and subsequently further unexpected work to the walls around the belfry openings, and to the buttresses has been found. So our target increased by £20,000, and some of the later, less urgent stages of the work have been deferred.

Work was completed on 14 December and the scaffolding removed from the tower in time for Christmas. The main contractor for the stonework was Matthias Garn from Bugthorpe. His recent work has included stonework at the churches in Kirby Grindalythe and Pocklington. Before that he was engaged for three years working on the rebuilding of the bombed Frauenkirke in Dresden – by comparison with that task our project is relatively straightforward! Read more about our team of stone masons in the article from the Malton and Pickering Mercury of 21 November.

The lower pictures below give some idea of the poor state f the twoer bfore restoration.. The first two pictures taken immediately after the completion of the work give some idea of the extent of the renewed stone work.