In 2018 a group of five parishioners decided they would have a go at putting together a National Lottery Heritage Fund application. The project was, of course, far more complex than they could have imagined and took far more time.
Now our work with the National Lottery Heritage Fund has been completed we have produced an Evaluation of the work that has been done on the Delivery phase of the project. This covers the period of the capital works on the building and the activities we put in place to open the building to the wider public. Our Evaluation shares the perspectives of the parishioners who led the project to restore the church and who became known as the parish heritage team. Please click below to read their story.
Once the building work was underway and the mosaic was being cleaned and repaired, the parish team organised with the building contractors, Aura, a series of Hard Hat Tours. Groups of 12 to 15 visitors were given a brief history of St John’s, a health and safety talk, and the necessary PPE including hard hats and fluorescent yellow vests. Visitors were given the opportunity to see high level repairs by going up to the dome in the ‘Spider’ or by scaling the ladders and scaffolding to obtain a close-up view of the restored mosaic. Others tried their hand at bricklaying before the whole group went outside to see about the complex work that was underway in the repairs to the dome.
The following takes you to a report from the Manchester Modernists who sent us this link to their Hard Hat Tour experiences and reflections.
The following video tour of St John’s was made before our application to the National Lottery was complete and therefore before any restoration work had started. It was produced to give viewers an insight into this magnificent Church, why it was designated as a Grade II* listed building and why its restoration was urgent as it was, at that time, on the Buildings at Risk Register.
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