St Lawrence Church in Abbots Langley is appealing to the public to raise £25,000 the final it needs to protect the external stonework.
The 12th century church is a pillar for the community, which is a much loved and well used part of the village, could be under threat in the future.
A quinquennial inspection by the church’s architect has shown it the local clunch stone, a hard chalk, is in need of repair. It’s one of the most porous of stones used for buildings and erodes very quickly compared with other stone.
The building needs to be limewashed, which will cost the church £102,000.
Vicar Peter Waddell said: “The money is so important for the church because the repairs are so vital. If we don’t do these repairs, then sooner or later the building will decay and ultimately become dangerous and unusable.
“We are a long way off that, but we have to do the repairs now or we will get to that point. I just think since I arrived here, I have become aware of how vital this building is in the life of this community.
“There’s a real sense people, even if they’re not regular church goers, need this building to be here. Partly to come by themselves to sit alone, think, pray and partly for the big occasions. But I think if this building wasn’t here it would be a terrible wound in the heart of this community.”
This project will replace some of the badly eroded stone with new clunch – including some window tracery stonework – with stone as approved by the architect. The work will be carried out by a specialist masonry contractor, supervised by the church architect approved by the Diocese.
The site work can only be done in the dryer summer months and we hope will complete in 2019, although if necessary, will extend to 2020.
Any donations can be sent to The Parish Office, St. Lawrence Church, High Street Abbots Langley, WD5 0AS – or by bank transfer to sort code 30-99-21, account 01540225.
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