A good job of work

I don’t know whether this is a well-known expression, or just something that was said in my circles, but I hope the meaning is clear… at today’s Church Spring Clean, “a good job of work” was done. A group few in number but fabulous in commitment turned out, and both the inside and the outside of the church building were treated to some much-needed TLC – some of it administered with an axe!

Inside, it was not axes, of course, but cloths and dusters, including the extraordinary telescopic dusting tool presented to us by the Bats in Churches project when we hosted their cleaning seminar a couple of years ago. We’ve cleared a lot of cobwebs at high level, and all of the pews have been thoroughly cleaned. We have also replaced a couple of down-lighters and have reviewed the lighting generally. In view of what we found, we shall shortly change not just the faulty ones, but all the main church light-bulbs for environmentally-friendly LED equivalents. We are hopeful this will save us some money on the electricity bill as well as being good for the planet!

Outside, some of us stripped out all of the ever-encroaching moss, grass and weeds from the gullies around the church walls and weeds from the pathways. Others removed a veritable blanket of ivy from the south wall of the tower. Our resident bats won’t be pleased this has gone because it provided a home for lots of insects which they love to eat. The bats may be a protected species, but we reckon they can find alternative food sources elsewhere. Our primary duty is to protect the church building which is Grade 1 listed. If we let the ivy get too much of a hold, it would be very expensive to repair. Accordingly, ivy encroaching elsewhere on the walls – including the churchyard walls – has also been stripped away. And if you’re still wondering where the axe was used … it was to deal with the base of the ivy growing against the tower.

Here are a few before and after pictures which show the progress that has been made outside.

There is still more to do – there’s only so much that can be achieved in a couple of hours – but we are so grateful to everyone who turned out. One person even came to help on their birthday! I hope the doughnuts were a sufficient alternative for birthday cake!

Watch this space for another similar clean-up event in the future and plan to come along. Many hands make light work, and it’s always good to volunteer alongside others.