The Greatham Community Old Church Preservation Group
The Old Church
Built in 1262, the Old Church in Greatham fell into disuse after the dedication of the new church in 1875. The bell was moved to the new church along with many other fittings. As the roof of the Nave was in danger of collapse it was dismantled soon after this and the archway between the Nave and Chancel bricked up. The Caryll monument was moved into the now self contained Chancel and without its roof the Nave began its slow collapse into ruins.
Throughout the twentieth century the old church gradually became more decayed until in the early 1990's the Old Church Preservation trust was formed and began its restoration. Working with the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings (SPAB), the decay has been slowly halted and the graveyard bought back from the jungle it had become.
The Caryll Monument
This is the tomb of Dame Marjory Caryll who died in 1632. It is chiefly constructed of alabaster with a black marble top to the chest and inscription plates in grey slate. It is of particular historical importance not only because it is relatively complete, having escaped beheading by Cromwell, but also because it represents one of the latest examples of a very formal style of effigy made at a time when more informal poses were becoming more popular.
Click on each of the images to see a larger picture
Greatham Community Old Church Preservation Group
The Old Church Preservation Group is a voluntary organisation formed out of the old preservation trust. It consists of a representative from the church, L'Abri, the Parish Council and interested members of the community. The purpose of the group is to ensure the restoration, preservation and maintenance of the Old Church and the Caryll Monument which it houses. The group organises various events at the old church, the most well known being the "Summer Picnics" and the "Christmas, candlelit, mulled wine and music evenings". As well as being social events for the surrounding communities these form the centre pin of the groups fundraising, currently for the restoration of the Caryll Monument.
Past projects
Since 1990 the group has organised working parties on a regular basis to clear and maintain the graveyard. With the help of experts from SPAB there have been many weekends of re-pointing and Limewashing of the walls. The Group raised the funds and organised the re-roofing of the Chancel in 2003.In 2005 with the help of a team of volunteers from L'Abri it installed a French drain round the southern half of the Chancel.
Current Projects
The major issue of the moment is fundraising for the restoration of the Caryll Monument and the provision of public access to it once restored. Currently access to the old church is gained by collecting a key from Huguette Jenkinson or another member of the group. Clearly this will not be sustainable in the long term.
The problem has been to provide access to the monument whilst at the same time maintain its security. One suggestion was for the chancel itself to be left open and to encase the monument in reinforced Perspex. This was rejected both for aesthetic reasons and because it provides no security to the building itself. The alternative method, which is favoured by the majority of the group, is to replace the bricked up archway at the west end of the Chancel with a glass wall which will provide an easy and secure method of viewing the monument. The photographs show this end of the chancel as it is now and an artist's impression of how it will look with the glass wall.
Click on each of the images to see a larger picture
Links
The home page of the SPAB website has the following picture of the Greatham Old church on it (painted by Nick Hirst during a working party) :
Click on the picture above to visit the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings at www.spab.org.uk.