A Wedge of Cheese and Duncton

My life is consumed at the moment by thoughts of by thoughts of "floor". Dierdre Waddington, our architect and I are trying get the arrangement of the sanctuary right. We are trying to fit a modern sanctuary into the space of a rather compact Tridentine sanctuary, it is "quarts into pint pots". Whatever we do we can't quite find the right place for the Presidential Chair. In the old days the sedillia was place in the Lady Chapel, which even then didn't quite work.

All Soul's Day Mass said the sanctuary looks as though it is a "wedge of cheese", at the moment it is floored with ply-wood, just so we can make alterations to it.

Dierdre recently visited Duncton which is the other church in our diocese designed by Gilbert Blount. it is far less exhuberant than St Mary Magdalen, and has been treated even more brutally than SMM. What Duncton lacks in fine carvings, it makes up in flooring. Where Blount gave us floorboards, which even in the earliest photographs were covered by a fitted carpet, then by lino stuck down by bitchumen, then latterly by asbestos vinyl tiles but Duncton has the most amazing encaustic tiles, which I want though I suspect we won't be able to afford them, modern ones tend to be much less subtle in their colouring, salvaged one's are like gold dust. What might possible is a combination of ceramic and stone tiles to created a similar though simpler effect. The Indian/Chinese ceramic and stone cutting industry means that at the moment such a floor will be about as expensive as hard wood, the difference is that it will last for centuries, and what Blount has left us with is stable base of piers, perlins, joists and beams.

Masons in the Church

Someone gave us just enough money to get our west window fixed, there is scaffolding on the outside window. The horrible grey paint was sprayed everywhere in the 1970's to cover gloomy coloured stone. The paint is impermeable so moisture soaks into the stone and dissolves the it under the paint. The stone masons have applied something called "Peel Away" to a test area, it is covered with polythene and hopefully after a day or two most of the paint is gone.

Unfortunately everything in the church is covered in this paint, all the stone windows are in a similar state though not quite in such danger of falling to pieces.

Even the fine carving of on our font is covered in it, the gilding is actually dull gold paint, it is the flash that has enlivened it. This panel of the font has had one application of "Peel Away", the stone is exactly beautiful but we'll see what the Masons come up with.

Work so far

The basic carpentry work on our sanctuary is done, the steps are in place, the design we submitted to the Historic Churches Committee has been modified a little so we will have to go back to them for approval and approval of whatever will be the final covering, encaustic tiles would be splendid, fitting but beyond our means, at the moment we are thinking about laminated hardwood.

I still haven't found the right place for the chair. I hate sitting Caligula-like facing the congregation and I don't like radio microphones, some parts of the Mass not supposed to be heard, and depending on what you are wearing can make you sound like a crackling bag of crisps, so I want a freestanding microphone. The music stand, I know looks odd, normally we have a book bearer at "High" Mass, I need something for bits and pieces.

On Sundays and feast days we put out more candlesticks, in conformity with the General Instruction. I prefer taller candlesticks, because they add to the vertical, upward dimension. Besides, candles are supposed to give light and small squat candlestick don't illuminate much. The crucifix facing me looks a little strange with another crucifix immediately behind facing the people. I am never quite sure which one to incense, yes it is the Benedictine arrangement but I am sure it is meant to be transitional.

One little thing that I am rather pleased with. it is experimental at the moment is using the piscinae niches as credence tables, at the moment there are huge hunks of ply wood and blutak there, the level needs raising. We don't want to put unnecessary screws into the stone, if we find it works we will use glass or a thin sheet of matching marble. I am trying to keep the sanctuary free of unnecessary clutter like credence tables.

Tonight we'll see how it works in EF, Monday there is a High Mass for All Souls.

Eventually we want to face the altar with the carvings which are now behind it - this is mock up of how it will look - this will be in the final phase, if we can afford it.

So far we have spent less than £20,000 pounds, that includes sanding and sealing the floor, sanding the benches - they have yet to be varnished - moving the organ to the gallery, and the work on the sanctuary, in the next week or so the stone masons will start work on our poor old west window. Then we do the lighting and electrics, and pray for more money - God is good


This is the church las Good Friday, I hope posterity will say we have improved it.

The predella and the void

Today we stripped off the covering from the predella in front of the tabernacle. Originally there was a top step, where the boards show, interestly it was narrower than the predellae in the side chapels. The altar came out to the stone foundation. The step was covered with green marble effect vinyl tiles which would have looked quite spectacular for the first couple of years

This more of the clutter found under the sanctuary, imagine those light fittings in a Victorian church!

This is our temporary altar arrangement, it is ad voidem for the whole of this week including all Sunday Masses. By the side of the altar are carved fragments recovered from the depths.

Thank you very if you have donated to our restoration fund, many readers have, I am very grateful, I will remember you and your intention at the altar.

Timber and the hole

This morning after Mass we moved the altar, again. The base is quite light, the mensa took ten of us to move it.


The timber for the santuary floor levels arrived on two trucks , one bringing the plywood and the other bringing the massive beams.

Here the floor is removed

Below the sanctuary is a treasure trove of old bits and pieces, light fittings pictured here, but when more of the floor is removed we hope to find bits of the pulpit. ~#

I bought a sanctuary floor today

Today is supposed to be my day off, at least from after Mass and Confessions, it invariably ends up by not being so. This afternoon I went down to Shoreham docks with Peter our carpenter to buy a sanctuary floor, it arrives tomorrow. The present floorboards are covered in glue, linoleum, mastic, acrylic tiles, more glue and the present horrible stained brown carpet.

I was surprised how cheap it was, less than £1,800. We will have to add the cost of labour then when the work has been finally approved by the Historic Churches Committee we can put a laminated hardwood surface down., unfortunately because the HCC only meets once a quarter, it won't be finished until after Easter.

Nowadays any restoration or "new build" has to take into account both forms of the Roman Rite, even in the recent past, to be faithful to the General Instruction of the Romman Missal Mass said in eithe direction should have been possible. I have been quite insistant that a sanctuary is not a stage, which fortunately is what our architect, Deirdre Waddington, understands too. We have wanted to restore steps up to the altar. It is not just about making sense of the words, "I will go up to the altar of God", but the altar is supposed to symbolise heaven, as well as the hill of Calvary. It is supposed to represent the Holy of Holies and be reminiscent of the bima of the synagogue.

The big problem is putting a freestanding altar into an area designed for the altar to be hard against the wall. We have had to compromise by reducing the planum, the area below the altar to a minimum, it ios not too much of a problem with the Ordinary Form, where the action hinges around the ambo, presidential chair and altar, nor for Low Mass in the Extraordinary Form where the altar is really the only consideration, the problem is going to be with Concelebrated Mass in the OF and High Mass in the EF where there is a need for a certain luxury of space.

We have made modifications to the plans I originally posted, pushing the altar and steps back a little and cutting out an area of steps on each side of the front of the sanctuary, to make space for the chair which will be at right angles to the altar and probably flush with the pillar. The space around the altar has also been reduced so the steps are seen and the servers are visible "ascending and descending". The steps will continue all the way round the altar, the credence table(s) will be placed against the pillars. The servers will have seating in the side chapels, I am not quite sure where we will put a sedillia, we have High Mass on All Souls Day - Faure!

If you can help, we will be grateful.

Congratulations Deirdre

I discovered this morning Deirdre Waddington, our architect has just received a prestigious RIBA award for her previous Church project.

ICN reports:

Architect Deirdre Waddington has been awarded the prestigious RIBA Downland Prize in the community section for her work at the church of St Francis and St Anthony,(also known as the Friary Church).

Originally completed in 1959 extensive alterations to the church were carried out between 1993 and 1995. Deirdre Waddington’s brief was to remedy defects in the construction; provide access for the disabled; and create a more practical and prayerful interior. Among the resulting alterations were the re-instatement of the East wall; and the formation of a false arch to conceal the line of braced steelwork. The original painted ceiling and patterned flooring were re-instated. Deirdre replanned the sanctuary to provide focus for worshippers, which included the incorporation of the Lady Altar from a church in Woking, which was about to be demolished.

The Downland Prize jury commented: “The re-ordering of the internal space has been sensitively carried out, in a manner that is wholly sympathetic with the original design fifty years ago. The project demonstrates great sensitivity and respect; and has delivered a building which appears to have exceeded client expectations, in an extremely well-mannered, understated way. The original and new elements appear to have been seamlessly joined.”

Friary church in Haslett Avenue West designed originally by Harry Stuart Goodhart-Rendel’s features on the Crawley Heritage Trail and is constantly visited by members of the public. The church was completed shortly before his death in 1959.

Deirdre said that “everyone worked really well together.” To see pictures of the newly restored Church see:
http://www.crawleyparish.org//

Watching varnish dry

Peter began putting the first coat of varnish, the primer, down today, it is supposed to be clear but it has made the older wood quite dark, the new wood is unaffected, I hope it is going to dry much lighter, we have a real problem with the absence of light in the Church.

This picture shows the area of the rear wall where we removed the old "antipendium chest" which had been nailed up for years, it had a huge radiator in front of it. It took five of us to move it a few feet with difficulty. The wall is in a terrible state but we will have to live with that for a while.



Many thanks to those of you who have generously donated to our Restoration Fund. I will offer Mass for intentions next Friday in the Extraordinary Form.

Sanding begins

Today sanding the floor began it is going to leave the floor a lovely rich colour. We were hoping that it could be completed today but insatead of being able to do a coarse, medium and fine sand, it is a slow job, in fact the coarse sanding is less than a quarter done. It has to be taken painstakingly slowly because of the undulations in the floor years of feet standing between the benches, the gaps between the floorboards have to be filled too.

I was hoping it might have all been done for Sunday but it looks as though it might well all go on to Wednesday of next week, I just pray it won't rain over the weekend.

Anyone know who patron saint of sanding is? Maybe I should just turn our rather black St Joseph round to watch over the work, and keep lights burning in front of him until the work is done.

Many thanks to those of you who have generously used the paypal button, or sent a cheque, I'll offer the Most Holy Sacrifice for your intentions next week.

The Compression of Holy Feet

For almost the last hundred and fifty years the feet of saints and sinners have crossed the theshold of this church. Here are the results, the floorboards were originally 1 inch thick, at the thinnest part they are about a quarter of that. It is the compression of holy feet. That is a loss of a quarter inch of floorboard every 50 years, though of course two fat men entering at the same time could have found themselves in the depths.

Stripping the Church

Today we cleared the floor of the nave of Church for sanding and varnishing. Today Peter and Radic are on their hands a knees, hammering down nails, tomorrow they replace floorboards, some are very worn by the main entrance, others are a bitten rotten where we had leaking radiator for years.

It felt a little strange despoiling the Church, piling the benches into the sanctuary, removing statues and anything else that was moveable.

I am feeling almost inclined to follow the ancient practice of simply having pews only around the sides, having men in one aisle and women in the other, leaving the centre for the liturgical action. People could bring their own kneelers if they needed them. How much it would change the style of the liturgy.

Fr Richard Biggerstaff of Lewes came over with Fr Jonathan Martin (en clergyman) and Gerard Hatton, one of our seminarians, to check out what was happening. Tomorrow we have Mass on a makeshift altar in our Parish Centre. It is going to be so tight if our normal numbers turn up, I'll have to celebrate ad apsidum.

Interestingly, the floor undulates where for the last 150 years people have stood between the benches.

Thank you to those of you have donated through the Paypal button, your contributions are a real help. I shall Mass for your intentions next week.

Spot the difference

Click to enlarge

These first two pictures were taken during Mass a few months ago

An avid postcard collector just sent me this from 1906

This one was taken in the 1870s

Shrouds and things from the depths

Today Alan, the organ builder shrouded the organ pipes in polythene, when he reconnects the organ he tells me polythene will expand like a balloon. Tomorrow he rebuilds the organ console in the gallery. Below the organ gallery Peter is sanding benches.

Yesterday Peter took up the additional flooring put down in the seventies when the altar was moved to the santuary step.

From the depths, underneath the santuary we found these bits and pieces, a broken piece of pulpit, which means at one time it was half an octagan, made up of four sides rather than three as it is now. The destruction must have happened before the horrible grey paint was put everywhere. I am not sure what the stone is, it is quite soft but this little fragment feels silky, just like skin. It makes me weepto think what damage has been done in the Church.

The other thing we found was a crocket which doesn't quite look as though it belongs to anything that exists now so there must have been something else that was destroyed.

We also found the bases to the communion rails, which we still happen to have. Now, what was it Cardinal Arinze said about communion rails and turkeys?

Many thanks to those of you who have sent donations, especially Clement from New York who sent a $200 from New York a few weeks ago, unfortunately your letter was delivered to our school which is on vacation.

Towards a decent Altar

Today we moved the altar, I am afraid it is going to move backwards and forwards quite a lot, tomorrow we return the sanctuary to its original dimensions, and remove the font from the sanctuary, in the next month we will install the altar on its platform, raised on three steps

The altar after Mass this morning, Monday is supposed to be my day off, as it rarely is in fact, just so it is bit different I celebrate Mass ad apsidum.



Here you can see the amount of space that is wasted on the sanctuary.




This is the altar stripped of its antipendium.



This is the support structure built by Peter this morning to support the mensa and distribute weight, it will be strengthened with a ply shell tomorrow.

Four strong men with just a bit of groaning moved the mensa from its legs.

The most difficult bit was getting the decorative plaques from the legs, the will eventually be restored to the pulpit from whence the came.

The legs weren't "glued down"! They just stood on the stone sanctuary step, the bit they added in front, as the predella, will be removed next.

Clearing up, the holes in the carpet are where the altar was.

After a bit more clearing up this is what will greet people tomorrow, we are sanding the benches too.

The altar will be placed in front of the remains of the cut down remains of the former high altar, the mensa for the now temporaray altar was cut down from this. It was dismantled lost its frieze and was push against the wall. As the carving will be obscured by the altar, as it has already been mucked about with, we want to use the three decorative narrative panels seperated by a pillar for our permanent altar.

This is what we hope to create.

It is a controversial solution in so far as it is using the original altar ensemble, rather than conserving it. We are trying to do what Gilbert Blount would have done if he had to put in a free standing altar.

The alternative would be to create something contrastingly modern which would obscure the original work, or something which was insubstantial and would allow a limited view of what remains of Blounts work or leaving in place the original stone carving and making a fibreglass facsimile. I have thought long and hard about all these options, all that will work and be worthy in our context is this solution.

The trouble is we can't afford it.

If you can help...