St Pat's Planning Page

In the beginning, we were offered some pieces of wood by St Patrick's Church, Flinthill, Dipton. These has been gratefully accepted and thank you for the thought. However, this wood is far too good just to break up. It already has a value far in excess of anything we might make from it. So we'll sell it, getting as much from the sale, as we possibly can and split proceeds 50/50. Our 50% will be used exactly as we discussed and intended i.e we'll repair 4 kneelers, modify the existing side table and produce another exact copy to make a pair. We will also fashion some simple, plain wooden crosses for you to use.

St Pats, 9 Mar 12

The two large pews presented a bit of a challenge. They would appear to have been in the upstairs room for quite some time, likely because of this. However, they are now down in the main church and nothing was broken.

The smaller pews have been repositioned, two for sale (@ £100 each) at the other side of the church for anyone in the congregation that wishes to have a piece of St Pat's history at home (see a later section)and 3 moved, first to the garage and then onmoved for cleaning and polishing. One went into the No 1 Auction Room @ Leadgate, with a reserve of £100 and 2 are with the surplus Alter rails originally intended for making crosses and the like. Again, we will keep it simple and simply see how the most money can be raised.

Google in Oak Church Pew to see that oak church pews sell for anywhere between £200-£400 and that's what we'll aim for.

The garage is now emptied, neat and tidy, and we'll gety back to makd sure the sump is safely covered. We suggest this rather than fill it with the surplus stone and brick being generated by the adjacent garden scrape. The sump is a valuable asset but if you would prefer it filled, we will do this once we can pull a few people together.

The upstairs room is segregated from the main church and woud, as someone has already suggested, convert easily into a one-bedroomed, self-contained flat. Perhaps a live-in caretaker or someone willing to occupy at a fair rent on condition they occasionally help with maintenance. If you wish us to investigate this optioin further, let us know.

As for the garden itself, pity we could not get involved sooner. However, now that we are, maybe we can help.

St Pat's Church Furniture History

As we understand it, the darker oak pews were contemporary with the original church which we are told burned down some time before 1964. Some of the modestoy-panelled pews show evidence of this. They are well made, solid Oak, and re-polish easily. If anyone would like to help with this, we have taken this task on and will undertake this work progressively each Saturday @ the Art-e-Factory.

If you can tell us more or correct any mistakes, please use a comment.

Church Pew - Current Prices

This is the link to the relevant page on e-bay. Follow the link to see what pews are selling for at any given time:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p3984.m570.l1313&_nkw=oak+church+pew&_sacat=See-All-Categories

(if the link doesn;t work because it is on 2 lines, copy and paste directly into browser..

18 Mar 12

At yesterday's regular weekly auction one of the pews was sold. Someone had a real bargain but we had to start somewhere. £78 isn't a lot but needs must, especially as we have just had to shell out £360 for fresh elm to carry one making some commission pieces.

We are now the proud and very grateful owners of a Stayer SC251 table saw, brand new, which we got for £50 instead of £180. This also doubles as a mitre and chop saw and is needed to get production underway on St Pat's Easter Crosses which, along with another 2 pews, will be on sale at St Pat's Church this Easter. If we get permission, we would also like other pieces of the work being produced by the Art-e-Factory up at the MIS Garden Supplies yard to go on display there.

Next, the garden. By now we hope that the stone recovered during the garden tidy-up has been set aside. Most random stone and brick is intended to fill in the garage sump (pit if you prefer) but any decent pieces can be reused and will be collected, once our trailer is back on the road, and brought back to Leadgate for use, either in our dry stone walling activities on the C2C cycleway or in rebuilding the boundary wall between the Redwell Hills Care Home and St Ives Church. Or simply stored for the time when we get permisskion to continue. Or it could be used in creating some raised beds on site at St Pats on the same lines as those at the Care Home.

We also 'bartered' an oak cracket for a dozen cyclamens and 5 sacks of seed potatoes. In our experiences, hard-won, up at the Care Home, it is worth planting potatoes immediately after clearing the site, if only to supress the weeds which will appear and as if by magic in any freshly cleared space. Let the spuds do the work and produce a valuable cash crop whle the committees decide what to do next. The cylamens are in my own house for now but once they reach the point of near-death, as they will, they will be added to our plant stock and be available again. The stone likewise might sit in my garden for a year or two being used in various garden designs but will eventually find its way out.

Finally we have arranged for an 'expert' in building redevelopments and room conversions to come up and have a look some time on Wednesday morning. He may be able to offer some free advice and, as always, the final authority will rest with those that make the decisions. MIS Garden Supplies are still helping us and are offering 10% (or better) discount to anyone helping us that can offer proof that they belong to the network.

Go to the wewbsite and look at the St Pat's planning page where a copy of this email will also be listed to add anymore or correct any misconceptions. Cross? I'll say so!

Created on 08/03/2012 06:29 PM by dshields
Updated on 18/03/2012 05:49 PM by dshields