Reepham Benefice
Rediscovering the past: through a mixture of luck, slow and paint staking research and lots of patience, we are beginning to piece together some of the names recorded on the WWI Memorial in St. Michael’s Chancel more>
During the summer of 2008 our research found a sermon preached from St Michael’s Church on November 1st 1915. more>
Opportunity Knocks for St Michael’s Redevelopment Project.
The lovely Georgian Market Place of Reepham is dignified even more by the presence of the two medieval churches of St Michaels’ and All Angels and St Mary the Virgin. The fact that the two churches are joined together is very unusual and is a well known curiosity in this part of Norfolk and beyond.
St Michael’s was refurbished in the 1970s when a toilet block and kitchen were created.
The pews were removed so the nave is now a space similar to how medieval builders
intended. These facilities are no woefully inadequate so that the church is used
for a limited number of church and community events. Both the nave and the chancel
are used for some services but St Mary’s in the main focus of our worship.
The medieval ideal was to build inspirational places to bring the sacred and the secular together. This is how the church community in Reepham wishes to use St Michael’s. This vision, however, means that the building will need some updating to bring its facilities in line with the needs of the 21st century so that both the church community and the wider community can use it. A project team under the control of the Parochial Church Council has been set up to plan and carry out this task They have produced a full business plan with the following project aims ,how they hope to achieve those aims.
Project Aims
To make St Michael’s a building ‘fit for purpose’ both for church members and the wider community by:-
Creating an attractive and vibrant space within the complex of St Mary & St Michael’s, available for the use of the town as well as the church and wider benefice, in keeping with the Grade I and Grade II* listings of the buildings.
- Improving the linkage with St Mary’s to enable better interaction between the ongoing worship of St Mary’s and the everyday life of the local community.
- Providing space for a variety of activities, including a Quiet Space for prayer and reflection
- Enabling easier access to, and interpretation of, the war memorial and stained glass window in the chancel.
St Michael’s will then provide good facilities for local activities and the wider benefice. Without the proposed improvements, the building will increasingly become redundant and a great opportunity to serve the wider community will have been lost.
Achievement of Aims
- Refurbish toilets for disabled use
- Install a properly equipped kitchen and serving area
- Form a new staircase and gallery floor extending into the tower to provide a ringing chamber, a space for small meetings in the gallery and a parish office
- Create an adequate and manageable storage space
- Create a lighter and more welcoming porch
- Install effective heating with a separate system from that of St Mary’s
- Install attractive lighting and décor
- Acquire new storable furnishings for the nave
- Enclose the chancel and remove the front pews to make a space for quiet prayer and informal worship
- Create a new access to St Mary’s via the NE corner of the nave and remove Jacobean pulpit
- Renew flooring with washable, hardwearing and safe (not stone) surfaces.
The project has been costed at £300,000 and it is hoped to achieve this by some local fundraising, grant aid from both local and national sources and the use of part a recent legacy.
Josephine Tym
Project Leader
Click to view the Business Plan
A poem published in the January edition of the parish magazine in 1915, recalling the loss of life on the frontlines, is a stirring reminder of what was sacrificed more>
