Church Bell Appeal : We can announce that work has been commissioned to provide an electronically controlled bell clapper for the bell which will allow for a variety of sounding as a call to service. Eventually, when the clock face is made secure the bell will be connected to the clock to provide an hourly chime.

We would thank all those who have contributed to the appeal and also welcome further donations to help with other expenses.

Floodlights on the church.

Celebrating the new millennium with light
Church bells rang out across Britain to mark the beginning of the year 2000 and floodlighting Churches was also going to be an important element of the millennium celebrations. Lighting important buildings and interesting architectural landmarks is an appropriate way of celebrating. It not only draws attention to our heritage and increases pleasure in our surroundings, but encourages more people on to the streets at night, which gives a feeling of greater safety in some areas and is an additional tourist attraction.
The Church Floodlighting Trust was set up on the initiative of the lighting industry and had received a grant from the Millennium Fund towards the floodlighting of up to 400 local churches throughout Great Britain. Grants of approximately 45% of the capital cost could be obtained through the trust by churches of all Christian denominations with the balance being raised from local industry and church fundraising.
St John’s Failsworth applied to take part in the project during 1998 and obtained approval in mid 1999. With fundraising events and donations from local industry, the installation was completed in December 1999 in time for our grand switching on ceremony following a “From Darkness to Light” Advent Sunday service.

Restoration Update

In 2005 we received a grant from English Heritage to enable restoration work to be carried on the church spire. It was hoped at the time that the money from the grant and the money raised by the Church would be sufficient to cover the whole cost of the project.

Unfortunately this was not the case, as part way through the work, it was discovered that further damage to the masonry had been caused by the rusting of many of the bolts put in place when the spire was originally built.

This meant that work had to be stopped when it came to restoring the masonry around the clock faces.

In the meantime, the finings of the architect's examination during the Quinquennial examination of the bulding revealed that the masonry in the east end of the church was parting and causing damp to damage the fabric of the church. This also resulted in the various cracks to the interior walls you can see around the Chancel.

Because of this, English Heritage gave us a grant of £17,000.00p towards a total cost of £23,000.00p for an intial inspection of the damage and preparation for the next stage.

Prior to the change of Government we were able to claim back the VAT from the Listed Places of Worship grant scheme. However, althugh we had budgeted for this, the rules changed and we could not claim VAT refunds on professional charges from the architect or investigatory companies. In effect, this meant that we had to finance the shortfall from the grant.

This was done but it left us with a sum of money in the Restoration account of just under £25,000.00p

We then were offered another grant from English Heritage of £106,000.00p towards a total cost of £170,000.00p for stage 2 of the project. That is the actual repair of the east end.

Hopefully we can claim a refund of £24,000.00p VAT payments, but this is dependent on how many other churches claim within the same period, as there is a finite amount of money in the pot from Listed Places of Worship. We have no control over the timing of our claim against other claims, as we can only claim when certificates of completion are submitted by the architects.

As you can see, even if we are successful in reclaiming the VAT, this still means we have to find over £15,000.00p. Dig deep, we need your help! This stage of the restoration starts this September and is due to finish in February 2012.

This will include repairs to the Sacristy roof and the Choir Vestry roof and repointing the whole of the exterior of the east end, as well as replastering parts of the interior.

We have now applied for a further grant from Engish Heritage to allow us to finish the repairs to the clock faces.

We will not know if we are successful with this application until May 2012.

The cost of Stage 3, the clock tower, is just over £200,000.00p

Please given generously - you can make cheques payable to:

St John's PCC Failsworth

Cash donations willingly accepted at Church.