Old Congregational Church

Private Client, Old Congregational Church, Green Lane

The congregational church in Belper dates back to the mid 1850s. The congregation relocated to a new building in the 1980s leaving the original church empty, and over the next 20 years it fell into a serious state of disrepair.

Our client was able to apply for a Heritage Lottery Fund grant through Amber Valley Borough Council to part fund the restoration and conservation work. The final grant funded amount was the largest grant offered as part of AVBC HLF scheme.

The restoration of the building to a 5 bedroom family home was an ambitious and time consuming project for our client. The primary issue was the extensive damage to the majority of the roof structures and the stain glass windows. The impact of major water ingress through the leaking roof had caused parts of the roof to collapse and some of the timbers to rot.

The entire roof structure had to be supported allowing complete structural timber elements to be removed and replace with English Oak sections. The stain glass windows had been vandalised and complete new units had to be manufactured to match the original ones.
The new internal layout installed a steel frame to create bedroom, office, and bathroom area long north elevation of the nave. This allows for a large double heighted open area to the south elevation which would let sunlight light the space through the restored stain glass windows.

Our role was to gain listed building consent, planning permission, building regulation approval, supervise the buildings works, complete the grant funding application and monitor the allocation of funding with AVBC and the HLF.