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Concept of 'Our New Church'
For some time prior to our Parish meeting on 7th February 2001 the Diocesan Surveyor had
been reporting that the asbestos roof of the Church was in a poor state of
repair and needed to be replaced as a matter of urgency. This information
was relayed to Parishioners at the meeting and they were also reminded the
Church construction was of a 'temporary nature' and when erected was
expected to last 25 years. It has lasted 50 years to date. The Parish
Meeting concluded that a Working Party be set up to investigate the various
options we could and should consider.
A structural survey of the Church was carried out on 1st March 2001 to identify
specific problems with the roof covering and to identify possible
solutions. This survey confirmed that the roof covering of the Church was
indeed in a poor state and could be the subject of damage in the event of
adverse high winds. It was concluded that to carry out repairs would not be
practical due to the brittle nature of the asbestos covering and the
corrosion of the holding down bolts.
The Working Party, now known as the Fabric and Finance Committee,
considered the various options on the way forward. These included:
1. Refurbishing the existing Church including replacing the existing
roof. This option would take advantage of the disruption to incorporate
insulation into the roof and walls and to modernise the external appearance
as well as increase the capacity slightly and create a more welcoming
entrance.
2. Build a new Church to a design which specifically meets our
current and future needs.
3. Abandon our Church and site, by selling the same, and share the
use of St Mary's Anglican Church in Sawston with our Anglican friends.
4. Doing nothing was not considered a viable option, as was selling
the land and building a new Church elsewhere.
Investigation of option 3 above was in the end rejected as a viable option
due to the restrictions under which we would be likely to operate.
At the Parish Meeting on 17th
February 2002 options 1 and 2 above were presented for
consideration. The cost of option 1 was estimated to be £218,000. The
cost of option 2 was estimated to be £380,000, but it was thought
that with this option the Diocese might agree to sell the existing
Presbytery (Father would move into the bungalow we own on the site) and put
the money raised (thought likely to be £200,000) towards the cost of
a new Church. The pros and cons of both options were discussed and it was
concluded almost unanimously by the Parishioners present that we should
press forward with demolishing our existing Church and building a new one.
The shortage of Priests within the Diocese led to the Diocesan
Finance Board to ask for the seating capacity of the planned new church to
be increased to 200. After
careful drawing up of plans and consideration of the implications it was
concluded that we needed to move from our current site and build on a new
larger site. The plan for the
purchase of the new site and cost of building a new church would be
financed by selling our current site for housing development, as well as
using the considerable funds raised by the Parish for church building
work. The Parish agreed to
proceed with this proposal.
Difficulties were encountered not only in getting the required
planning permission for development of our existing site, but also with
access to the site identified for our new church.
In the intervening time the Diocese concluded that, due to the worsening
shortage of Priests, that Our Lady of Lourdes Parish needed to merger with
the larger Our Lady and the English Martyrs in Cambridge.
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Birth of our ‘New
Church’
There has been significant activity in the years since this initial
decision; however Father David’s departure to Felixstowe and Father
Raf Esteban’s appointment as our parish administrator led to a need
for the Parish to review our plans to build a new church off site. With the Diocesan approval, it was
concluded that we would convert our existing Hall, which is approximately
30% larger than the current church into our New
Church and thereby achieve added
seating capacity.
Many parishioners have put a lot of effort into refurbishing the Hall,
and turning it into a wonderful place of worship. We moved in on Maundy
Thursday 2008 for our very own Passover into our new life as a revitalized
community.
Father Raf has taken a series of “before”,
“during” and “after” photos which you can see by
clicking here.
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