Roof and Tower Appeal
Our much loved church of St George's in Pontesbury is in a very poor state of repair, and urgently needs costly work to be done, lest the damage becomes worse and even more expensive.
The photographs below, are all genuine except the last one, and attempt to indicate the serious state of repair at St Georges.
The link below will open a summary document prepared by the PCC Secretary, and shows that on current estimates, we need £50,000 to fund essential work. Please do all you can to help.
Here is the document
If you feel able to donate, we will be very grateful, and you could contact either The Rector, or The Treasurer by using the appropriate part of our contact page here.
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It's probable that these workmen in the 1930's were the people who used Portland Cement Mortar when pointing the church masonry. It was 'state of the art' at the time, but after ¾ of a century, the stonework has eroded, but the mortar has not, and this has led directly to the damage we witness today. |
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Here is a good example of the problem. The stones have eroded over time, the cement mortar has not, and so stands proud. This then forms a platform for water ingress into the joints, and then, particularly in winter, the frozen moisture expands, and blows more of the stone off, making the cement platform bigger, allowing more water in and so on........
It is thus progressive, even exponential, so we must deal with the problem now, and not wait until much of the building is beyond repair. |
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Here too, the ancient, 13th century, chancel wall on the east end of the building has been severely damaged.
It is not too difficult to see that given time, this erosion could extend right through the stone wall. |
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This image dramatically demonstrates how the cement mortar stands proud of the stonework.
It also shows the new lighting conductor earth strap, indicating by it's colour, that it is work recently done as part of the overall repairs. This work was put in hand as a matter of urgency, to avoid severe damage by lightning. |
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This was the lightning conductor before the recent work was done. One conductor was also missing, so now the repairs to this item have been completed, the building is better protected. |
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This image shows how an exposed joint has been damaged by weather, and after progressive water and frost attack, has lost all the mortar from the joint, thus allowing water directly into the fabric of the building. |
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Even if we ignore the build up of debris in the channel, we can clearly see pieces of mortar which have been blown out of joints, and where they have landed on the mud in the roof gutter.
Slates are also damaged, and must be replaced. |
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Here, the lead flashing has lost it's mortar pointing, and allows water to directly penetrate the building. This is costly to repair, but causes great damage to the insides of the building, and must be dealt with soon. |
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Once again, this time a mortar joint 'caught in the act', falling away from the lead flashing.
The flashing too, is not well extended into the joint, and is not very effective. |
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Here's a piece of mortar, blown out of the wall, and fallen from the tower. The keys show that it is not very big, but if it fell from the top of our tower, it was probably traveling at something approaching 40 mile per hour, so now you know why a small part of the tower area has been roped off. |
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Here, we can see the result of poor pointing to the lead flashings. Unrepaired, this water ingress will quickly rot the woodwork on the inside of the building. We must deal with this soon. |
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And again, more water ingress. This is not an isolated spot, there are places all over the church if you care to look up. |
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This is what we have now, a beautiful and ancient place of worship. The closest end, dark red is Jacobean, 13th century, and almost certainly stands on a former wood and thatch Saxon church. Parishioners have therefore worshiped here for over 1000 years. |
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And this is what will happen if we do nothing.
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