The First Viewing

The next day at the agreed time we met a lady from the estate agents who let us in. The first thing to catch our eyes as the front door opened was the stunning stained glass window. The colours brought to life by the sunlight streaming through them. We walked down the aisle, the church was pretty much as it had been left in the previous November. Only the altar had been removed. It wasn't a big a church but this made it even more attractive as a conversion prospect. The main part of the church had just 9 rows of pews with a central aisle, This room measured 5.5 metres by 12 metres and was the oldest part of the church having been built in 1835. The chancel where the altar had been and the which contained the stained glass window plus two leaded light mullioned windows was added in 1912 and measured around 5 metres by 5 metres. There were three superb arched wooden doors leading of these two areas into a single storey rear extension running the full length of the church, this extension being just over 4 metres wide and had only been added 15 years ago but built in the same style as the rest of the church. The extension consisted of a large meeting room 4m x 12m, a small kitchen, male and female toilets and the vestry. The vestry still had all the cupboards and wardrobes in place and were obviously handmade by a skilled craftsman. The meeting room also had the same style cupboards along one wall from floor to ceiling. Back in the main church a narrow staircase led up to the 1st floor, this was the organ loft complete with the fully functioning organ and the bell ringing rope. The place was full of atmosphere, you could imagine the countless people that must have filled the building over the past 170 years, attending all the important occasions, christmas, sundays, funerals, baptisms etc. The wooden floorboards between the pews were scarred and pockmarked by hundreds of high heels. The original font was sitting in the front garden and was being used to grow flowers in.

We walked around the perimeter of the building and this is where the downside of the church became apparent, the only garden was at the front and was about 4 metres deep, at the side was parking for 3 cars, at the back there was just a path 1 metre wide which went around the building and back to the front. The church sits on a fairly busy road with a petrol station opposite.

Back inside we went, the lady from the estate agents took a seat on a pew at the back of the church and we went around again by ourselves. We whispered to each other "What do you think?", We both nodded at each other and agreed that we liked it but what about the road, what about the lack of land. We needed to talk and to think but we both knew that we we were interested and deep down we knew that we really wanted it, but what should we do?, we aren't property developers with plenty of money to throw around, we are a small family living in a typical mortgaged 1930's semi-detached house with normal jobs. If we decided we wanted the church, could we raise the funds to buy it, and then convert it. Should we take the responsibilty, after all this is a building of local importance to the church, the town and the congregation.