Redevelopment plan would plan would save 'unwelcoming' church building
Wednesday, 1st October 2014.
A Haverhill church organisation has decided to try to preserve its iconic building despite saying it is 'unwelcoming' and 'unrepresentative of the Church today'.
The Old Independent Church, in Hamlet Road, is one of the glories of Haverhill's Victorian architectural heritage, but its small congregation is no longer able to sustain the 650-seater building and the church hall behind it.
Faced with the choice of moving out altogether to a smaller site, or letting one of the buildings go in order to finance redeveloping the other, United Reformed Church members have chosen to retain the church and make the hall available for redevelopment as three homes.
The money raised from selling the hall would finance adaptations of the church, such as building an entrance pavilion on the lawn to one side which would cut into the main church fabric nearby, and sectioning off parts of the church and removing pews to make a social area to replace the hall.
English Heritage have been consulted as the building, which dates from 1885, is Grade II* listed.
The Old Independent was a gift of the Gurteen family, replacing the former church behind it, which then became the church hall.
It catered for a huge congregation of up to 700, and has one of the grandest organs in East Anglia, but the congregation there is now so small it uses the church hall for services instead.
The main building is currently only used for the occasional concert or large special occasions.
Much-loved by Haverhill people, the building is not similarly appreciated by the United Reformed Church, which finds it outdated and unsuited to the needs and image of what it calls the 'Church family'.
The church has applied to St Edmundsbury Borough Council for planning permission to adapt the church, and to convert the hall into residential accommodation.
In its statement of need, the URC says: "At present both buildings are used by the Church although both are greatly under-used.
"The Church building is used for occasional concert and community events, but the inability to adequately heat such a volume and the excessive seating capacity is severely limiting this use.
"There are more suitable buildings in Haverhill for such events and these is no apparent long term future for the Church building as purely a community facility."
It goes on: "The cost of running and carrying out basic repairs and maintenance to the existing suite of buildings exceeds the available Church family income, and the buildings are currently being maintained by drawing upon invested funds.
"The current position is unsustainable and if it cannot be addressed by implementation of the proposed scheme it is likely that the Church family will need to close or move to smaller premises and declare the buildings to be redundant."
And it expresses its view of probably Haverhill's most iconic building: "The Church building and separate rear halls were developed to suit a pattern of Churchmanship which no longer reflects the nature of the current Church family who are being significantly compromised by the shaping influence of the current buildings.
"Amongst the deficiencies are:
"The Church building has stepped access from the street and lacks the visibility and ease of access associated with a welcoming community.
"The nature of the access and the lack of visibility and welcome in the architecture means that the Church building looks unoccupied for most of the week whilst the weekly activity in the hall is unnoticed.
"The building is inherently unwelcoming, not a problem in Victorian times but a significantly unrepresentative message for a Church family today.
"The Church building does not offer sufficient flexibility to explore different patterns of Worship. The community or social gathering and interaction space is at the back of the site presenting considerable barriers to encouraging any informal link ‘drop in and out’ with the community.
"Whilst the architecture of the Church building is considered worthy of ‘listing’ it no longer reflects, if it ever did, the reaching out and spiritual nature of the Church today and the sense of a building reflecting the past is overwhelming. The resulting judgements are very damaging to the outreaching of the Church family.
"The semi-industrial train station Victorian architecture of the interior is not conducive to Worship. Whilst a good example of its type it may not be widely appreciated in architectural terms.
"The Church building volume and lack of thermal insulation and air leakage makes for an uncomfortable internal environment. The Hall main entrance has stepped access and suffers from the same unwelcoming messages.
"The separation between Worship and other Church family activities no longer reflects the nature of the Church family and represents a significant problem."
English Heritage has already indicated that any redevelopment of the church hall would have to retain its internal central space and gallery surround.
The statement of need by the URC says of the hall proposal: "The three-unit scheme represents a likely development value in excess of the refurbishment and alteration costs but the balance is delicate.
"Layouts that maintain more of the existing layout by reducing the unit numbers to one or two produce a development value lass that the likely costs and will not be viable.
"Whilst a four-unit scheme will prove more attractive from the point of view of contributions to the Church building restoration, we have at this stage chosen to pursue a less intrusive layout."
At their planning committee meeting this week, Haverhill Town Councillors decided to raise no objection to the plans after they heard the likely alternative was that the church would close altogether.
The Old Independent Church, in Hamlet Road, is one of the glories of Haverhill's Victorian architectural heritage, but its small congregation is no longer able to sustain the 650-seater building and the church hall behind it.
Faced with the choice of moving out altogether to a smaller site, or letting one of the buildings go in order to finance redeveloping the other, United Reformed Church members have chosen to retain the church and make the hall available for redevelopment as three homes.
The money raised from selling the hall would finance adaptations of the church, such as building an entrance pavilion on the lawn to one side which would cut into the main church fabric nearby, and sectioning off parts of the church and removing pews to make a social area to replace the hall.
English Heritage have been consulted as the building, which dates from 1885, is Grade II* listed.
The Old Independent was a gift of the Gurteen family, replacing the former church behind it, which then became the church hall.
It catered for a huge congregation of up to 700, and has one of the grandest organs in East Anglia, but the congregation there is now so small it uses the church hall for services instead.
The main building is currently only used for the occasional concert or large special occasions.
Much-loved by Haverhill people, the building is not similarly appreciated by the United Reformed Church, which finds it outdated and unsuited to the needs and image of what it calls the 'Church family'.
The church has applied to St Edmundsbury Borough Council for planning permission to adapt the church, and to convert the hall into residential accommodation.
In its statement of need, the URC says: "At present both buildings are used by the Church although both are greatly under-used.
"The Church building is used for occasional concert and community events, but the inability to adequately heat such a volume and the excessive seating capacity is severely limiting this use.
"There are more suitable buildings in Haverhill for such events and these is no apparent long term future for the Church building as purely a community facility."
It goes on: "The cost of running and carrying out basic repairs and maintenance to the existing suite of buildings exceeds the available Church family income, and the buildings are currently being maintained by drawing upon invested funds.
"The current position is unsustainable and if it cannot be addressed by implementation of the proposed scheme it is likely that the Church family will need to close or move to smaller premises and declare the buildings to be redundant."
And it expresses its view of probably Haverhill's most iconic building: "The Church building and separate rear halls were developed to suit a pattern of Churchmanship which no longer reflects the nature of the current Church family who are being significantly compromised by the shaping influence of the current buildings.
"Amongst the deficiencies are:
"The Church building has stepped access from the street and lacks the visibility and ease of access associated with a welcoming community.
"The nature of the access and the lack of visibility and welcome in the architecture means that the Church building looks unoccupied for most of the week whilst the weekly activity in the hall is unnoticed.
"The building is inherently unwelcoming, not a problem in Victorian times but a significantly unrepresentative message for a Church family today.
"The Church building does not offer sufficient flexibility to explore different patterns of Worship. The community or social gathering and interaction space is at the back of the site presenting considerable barriers to encouraging any informal link ‘drop in and out’ with the community.
"Whilst the architecture of the Church building is considered worthy of ‘listing’ it no longer reflects, if it ever did, the reaching out and spiritual nature of the Church today and the sense of a building reflecting the past is overwhelming. The resulting judgements are very damaging to the outreaching of the Church family.
"The semi-industrial train station Victorian architecture of the interior is not conducive to Worship. Whilst a good example of its type it may not be widely appreciated in architectural terms.
"The Church building volume and lack of thermal insulation and air leakage makes for an uncomfortable internal environment. The Hall main entrance has stepped access and suffers from the same unwelcoming messages.
"The separation between Worship and other Church family activities no longer reflects the nature of the Church family and represents a significant problem."
English Heritage has already indicated that any redevelopment of the church hall would have to retain its internal central space and gallery surround.
The statement of need by the URC says of the hall proposal: "The three-unit scheme represents a likely development value in excess of the refurbishment and alteration costs but the balance is delicate.
"Layouts that maintain more of the existing layout by reducing the unit numbers to one or two produce a development value lass that the likely costs and will not be viable.
"Whilst a four-unit scheme will prove more attractive from the point of view of contributions to the Church building restoration, we have at this stage chosen to pursue a less intrusive layout."
At their planning committee meeting this week, Haverhill Town Councillors decided to raise no objection to the plans after they heard the likely alternative was that the church would close altogether.
Comment on this story
[board listing] [login] [register]
You must be logged in to post messages. (login now)