'Raise the Roof' 2022

Please help us to raise funds towards the costs of repair works of the roofs over our community rooms.

 

We estimate that our premises are used by over 250-300 people every week, offering a wide range of community activities – from art classes to yoga, from support for the sight-impaired to the Transition Buxton Repair Café – in addition to the chapel being a place of worship for over 60 people every Sunday morning.

If you would like to submit any comments in support of these works to support our funding grant applications, please email them to admin@buxtonmethodist.co.uk and they will be forwarded to the project committee.

Last updated 29.09.2023

The Problem

Our 2018 Quinquennial Inspection report identified minor areas of damp in various parts of the building and identified minor repairs which were immediately undertaken – but we were completely unprepared for the increasing incidences of water ingress that have occurred since then, in virtually every part of the building!

During the storms in February 2022, we found streams running down the wall of the upper room and through into the main hall, standing water outside the toilets on the lower corridor floor and the need for more buckets in the kitchen and coffee foyer than is safe for our building users.

Fundraising

We therefore need to ‘Raise the Roof’ and repair the various points of water ingress. Estimates suggest we need to raise £135,000 for Phase 1 of the repairs and as soon as possible, recognising the urgency of getting the work done before the Buxton winter arrives.

 

Our fundraising group, spurred on by emails and Facebook messages of support from our user groups, has been very successful in securing grants from a wide range of local and national sources:

  • National Churches Trust
  • National Lottery Community Fund
  • The Bingham Trust
  • Bernard Sunley Foundation
  • Lhoist
  • Benefact Trust
  • Manchester & Stockport District of the Methodist Church
  • High Peak Partnership, Methodist Circuit
  • Garfield Weston Foundation

 

Through these grants, we raised over £100,000.

Our Gift Day - 24 September - THANK YOU!!!

We held a Gift Day on Saturday 24 September, when the Church was open between 10am and 2pm for people to drop to make donations.

There was bric-a-brac and cake stalls at the front of church from 10am and photographic displays and refreshments available inside. There were also musical performances throughout the day. Our thanks to Carol Barnes, Buxton Community Choir, Andrew Hodkinson and Tom Hibbert for their performances.

A HUGE THANK YOU to everyone who supported us on this day. Your generosity means we we are now in a position to move forward and we look forward to a drip-free church in the not too distant future! See our updates below.

In the current situation, costs are continually rising, but we are confident that we can make good progress with Phase 1 of the scheme. If you couldn’t make the Gift Day but would still like to donate and help us to ‘raise the roof’, please see how below.

You Can Still Donate...

How to donate:

  • Text ROOF to 70490 to donate £5. To text any other amount, text ROOF followed by the number to 70580 (round number, no pound sign). For example, to donate £10, text ROOF 10 to 70580 (or use the QR code). Texts will cost the donation amount plus one standard network rate message.
  • Make a bank transfer to our bank account, using the reference ROOF (Account name: Buxton Methodist Church, account number 11312720, sort code 16-15-17)
  • Set up a standing order to make a regular donation. Download a form here.
  • Write a cheque payable to Buxton Methodist Church and post or deliver it to Raise the Roof, Buxton Methodist Church, Chapel Street, Buxton, Derbyshire, SK17 6HX. Please write ‘Raise the Roof’ on the back and provide your name and address so we can acknowledge your gift.
  • If you can Gift Aid your donation, please let us know. Download a declaration form here.

Repair Works - Phase 1

Phase 1 of the project will involve the following:

  • investigations of all the areas of water ingress
  • full re-roofing of the coffee lounge and also part of the roof over the upper room
  • repairs to all roof areas except the main worship space

(Subject to further fundraising, Phase 2 will include: replacing the lower room corridor roof; repairs to areas in main worship space; repairs to all other areas previously investigated in Phase 1)

Sep 2022

Following achieving our fundraising goal for Phase 1, potential contractors have been shown around the building enabling them to submit their tenders. We hope to receive these in the next few weeks and agree a tender by mid-October.

Jan 2023

A contractor for the works has been appointed – Rosslee. It is anticipated they will begin in late March and will continue for five months. We will be replacing the kitchen roof and repairing the roof on the Upper Room so there may be some disruption in these spaces. Further details will be confirmed in due course.

Apr 2023

The main contractor, Rosslee, started on site on 3 April, putting up scaffolding and setting up their site office on the Fountain Street side of the church (please do not park on the front of church or down the right-hand side from 3 April). Below is how the current schedule impacts room hire (subject to change):

  • Upper Room: may be noisy 6-16 June; closed 23 June-5 July
  • Lower Room: may be noisy 19-20 June; access may be disrupted 21-27 June
  • Kitchen: may be noisy 15-31 May; closed 19-20 June

May 2023

Works continue, including re-pointing the chimney stone and fixing the kitchen roof, which was in a worse state than first thought.

Some of our members and room hirers enjoyed tours up the scaffolding with the site manager.

July 2023

The first phase of work to our roofs is now largely complete. The scaffolding came down and the work cabins left the forecourt.

August 2023

We reached ‘practical completion’! It has been a difficult project because we’ve had to undertake repairs in lots of different places, all requiring complex scaffolding arrangements, and we didn’t know what we were going to find in each location until we got up there. Here’s a summary of what’s been done:

  • Installation of lead flashings around the parapets of the flat roof to the tower over the stairs
  • Improvements to the drainage of the flat roof to the tower over the organ
  • Stonework repairs to the boiler chimney, right at the top of the building
  • Repairs to the nave roof slating at the west end
  • Renewal of lead flashings over the upper room and around the dormer windows to the upper room, office and vestry
  • New rainwater pipe from the gutter over the glazed corridor, to deflect water away from the blue foyer coffee area roof
  • ‘Flashband’ repairs to the corridor roof, so it can limp along a little longer
  • Entirely new roof covering and insulation to the kitchen roof, with improved drainage and a new cooker extract fan (old rooflights reinstated; they will last a few more years)
  • New slate roof to the blue foyer coffee area
  • New gutters around the Chapel Street side entrance lobby