work.He understood that you could repairwith intelligence, creativity and subtlety, and his newlayer has enriched themodest church at Knotting significantly. Inside the church, four isolated items
Left (top), characteristic Norman masonry patterns survive in situ at Knotting church. Below, conservation and repair work at the church included the removal of the unsuitable white wall coating – the result of well-intentioned efforts of earlier parishioners to enhance the building. Once removed, and with new coatings applied, the church began to come alive as an old layer of salmon-hued limewash was painstakingly revealed
Facing page, the ancient roof, with a beam bearing the date 1669
immediately catch the eye: an old raised pulpit and testermade up fromrecycled Jacobean panelling; a good group of very uneven butmedieval oak pews; a simplemedieval stone fontwith a very picturesque, crocketted octagonal lid; and, finally, setwithin the beautifully preservedNorman chancel arch (with characteristic zig-zagmasonry), a pair of timber
gates.These gates date from1637, andwere placed here in the era ofArchbishop Laud reportedly to stop cock fighting in theChancel. Apart fromsome very delightful and artisan clothes pegswhich encirclemuch of the nave, these gates appear to have been the last substantial commission of bespoke furnishingsmade for the building.
DECLAREDredundant, the churchwas vested to theChurchesConservationTrust inApril 2009 as part of its 40th anniversary. Itwas the intention of the trust to undertake an initial phase of essential external repairwork in 2009-10, followed by a second phase of internal repairwork, planned for when funds become available in either 2010-11 or 2011-12. The condition of the churchwhen vestedwas
damp and gloomy.While heroic efforts had been made by parishioners tomaintain the church, a relatively recently applied coating of thewall covering “classidur” in hardwhite had failed dramatically andwas peeling off thewalls throughout the
building.The north half of the nave roof had been re-roofed, leaving fully exposed to the nave belowthe very orange-coloured “piranha” pine boarding, once so popular for kitchen ceilings in the 1970s. The other half of the roofwhich had no
boarding at allwas failing and
leaked.The South Transept roof also leaked, and a 19th-century raised timber platformherewas significantly decayed and
wormeaten.The bases of the externalwalls along the north sidewere soddenwith damp.Wewere passed a note that recorded that the northwall had been repointed in 2000with amortarmix comprising one part sharp sand: two partswhite lime: seven partswhite cement (“in order to stop masonry bees”),while five cubicmetres of concrete had been poured on to thewall base on the north
side.Thatmost atrocious but persistently used detail – the concrete,wall-base, open-gully drain – had sufficiently cracked to ensure that a ready supply of rainwaterwas being channelled into the wall base,where it could not escape.
THE first phase ofworkwas to re-roof the south side of the church nave and the southTransept, and to renewthe drainage. In order to create an adequate abutment for the lead flashingwith the newroof tiles, themasonry copings at the east and west ends of the nave andChancel had to be raised. The obviousway to have achieved thiswould have been automatically to ordermore oolitic limestone
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112