Roman Catholic Parish of
St Marie and St Joseph
Roman Catholic Parish of
St Marie and St Joseph
Parish
Blog

Tower Update

Just to keep our interested readers and supporters (especially players of the National Lottery) up to date with our project I thought a little blog post was timely.

You will recall that on the advice of our architect, the parish applied to the National Lottery Heritage Fund (HLF) in August 2017 for a grant towards the estimated £350,000 cost of repair and conservation works to the iconic lantern tower which is such a feature of the Bury landscape.

In December 2017, we were granted a first-round pass, which is given when the HLF has endorsed outlined proposals and earmarked funding. Our first-round pass also includes an immediate award of over £35,000 to fund the development of the project.

Throughout 2018 our parish team in conjunction with our architect and other professionals has been working on this Development Phase. To the naked eye it would appear that nothing has been happening as there is very little to see. So what has been happening in this Development Phase?

As any good builder knows it is important to lay good foundations for any building and that careful planning is undertaken. As you can imagine a project of these proportions needs careful planning and consideration.

During the course of last year various surveys and plans have been drawn up that will not only be of use for the repair works to the tower, but will be of future benefit to the parish when we look at work that needs to be undertaken at the East End of the church.

This has been done in conjunction with various other investigations including: a bat survey, timber treatment survey and an asbestos survey. We have worked alongside other professionals who have drawn up a Bill of Quantities and prepared documents to go out to tender.

The Development Phase of the project was completed in December 2018. On the 28th December a detailed application was put before the HLF to apply for the remaining balance of £213,000 to complete the work.

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