A message from the Rev. Clive in places where others fear to tread.
5th February: It’s blowing a gale, has got very gloomy and looks like rain: ideal conditions therefore for another pop up the tower.
I got there not long before the builders would be due to pack up for the day.
Things have moved on quite a lot since my last visit: it’s quite a view from the top! You don’t realise just how far up you are...until you look down
Mike Gammon, the chief builder, was on site, hammer in hand. (He’s no armchair boss!) So were two of his workmen, Clive and Clive’s mate. They’ve got on really well as you can see in the photo. Now, the sides of the steeple are quite short in width, since they are so far up. In fact, very far up. I’m standing alongside the stainless steel ‘finial’ on top of which sits the rather rusty and lichened weather-vane. Mike hopes to bring that down for regilding in a few days’ time, and then once the work is done we hope to make a bit of a thing about its triumphal return.
So, the work is progressing well. The next stage isn’t quite so interesting or altitudinous: the porch roofs and the north nave roof are to be re-tiled.