- Did we really want to move?
- Did we really want to live in a church?
- Could we actually manage the conversion?
- Could we afford the conversion?
- Could we raise the money to buy the church in the first place?
However to help answer these questions we decided to find out as much as we could about the church, its history and its present status and condition.
We decided to start with the local vicar, a quick telephone call established a few facts. The last service had been in November. Shortly after the church closed thieves had got on to the roof and removed some of the lead which had resulted in the meeting room roof leaking during some bad weather, but the church had since had this replaced with new under their insurance. We asked if the church were planning to remove the pews, pulpit, organ etc?, the answer was no, whoever bought the church got these as part of the package. Apparently the organ was too heavy and complex to remove anyway so it was going to become the new owners problem (and what a problem it was! - but more of this later).
Next stop was good old Google, a few minutes of searching and a we were finding a few pictures and historic notes about 'our' church. It was built in 1835 and had been extended and added to a few times. It was chapel of ease to the main church in the town (a satelite church if you like, to service parishioners who lived too far from the main church). It had never been consecrated, it was simply licensed by the Bishop for religious services.
Then we decided to take a trip to the local library to see if any more historical information was to available. There we found a small paperback book about the history of the main church. On the back cover was an old black & white photo of 'our' church. Inside there were more anecdotes and snippets of information about the pews, the pulpit and the boy who used to ring the bell.
So historically it was interesting, its condition was excellent all we had to do now was make that big decision.
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