Beautiful and ancient, the tranquil exterior of St. Michael’s disguises the deterioration of the fabric of the building.
The breakdown of the building was highlighted in the Quinquennial Report and the fact that flint stones were occasionally falling onto the perimeter path around the church where members of the public walk. With some urgency, a programme of work was compiled to prevent further deterioration to the building and to preserve St. Michael's for future generations. This work included replacement of the rainwater goods together with repairs to stonework around the tower windows and to the flint walls.
After access was gained to the parapet of the tower, it was discovered that the coping stones around the tower were loose and had been significantly damaged due to corrosion of iron cramps, which had expanded, causing the stone to break. This stone needed to be replaced and fixed with stainless steel pins. Similarly, the stones to the turret of the tower were in a poor state and the turret had to be dismantled down to the string course and rebuilt with new stone. This extra work created a shortfall of funds. It was, therefore, decided to complete all work that required the use of scaffolding and to continue when further funds had been raised. The second phase was to repair/replace stonework to the North Porch, to the lower windows, flint work and buttresses.
This work is due to be completed by the end of May 2012.
