The finishing touches: the building is finished at last and we are now putting in the furnishings and fittings. First to go up are the curtains which make the Hall look more welcoming. We did remember to ask the builders to put in extra reinforcement in the shape of plywood behind the plasterboard so that we had something secure to screw the curtain pole brackets into without running foul of steel lintels and this has worked well. The poles are firmly supported. The curtains have been unpacked and are now finding their length. We will fit weights in the bottoms to help them hang straight
Next thing is to commission the construction of cupboards wherever we can put them, in order to store the vestments, books and papers in an organised way. Then we can move things from the Bridgewater Chapel and start to get straight.
We are using our existing furniture as we don’t have funds for new replacements, but it is perfectly adequate and will serve us well for a while. The same goes for the crockery. We discovered we have nearly 100 cups and saucers! We could do with some new plates and bowls and we hope to get those in due course, but we can manage with what we have for the immediate future.
Barbara Sheard and Michael Carver
Churchwardens