RENEWAL PROJECT



At Nunthorpe Methodist Church part of our mission is to increase our involvement in the life of the community particularly with young people and the elderly.

"It all began at the stewardship campaign in 1996. What was my vision for Nunthorpe Methodist Church?" wrote Julie O'Key "My thoughts were focused on buildings that did not meet our needs". "My hope is that the building improvements will be an opportunity for us to show a witness of faith to the people of Nunthorpe." This vision was shared by many within the church.



The new church prior to building work commencing
 The existing New Church was built in 1961 with the "School Room" extension built later in 1968. The large junior church at this time led to the provision of many small rooms with a flat felt roof. Some thirty years on the roof was in need of urgent repair again. The flat roof was replaced in 1986 and if we replaced it again we could expect only a limited life. This alone however did not justify our vision for the buildings. In the same time period there had been loss of community facilities in Nunthorpe, the local institute had to be demolished following a fire and the local library closed after local government reorganisation.

The time was right. A survey was carried out which canvassed the views of all church members. The results from this showed general support for improving the church extension. A more detailed analysis of the results showed that a pitched roof, better kitchen and toilet facilities were favoured. This together with better use of the available floor space, including a large hall, would increase the use of the buildings. Preliminary plans were draw up incorporating the preferred features identified in the survey. These early designs were made by David Hunter an architect within the church with David Alford. The drawings were very pleasing indicating that the proposed changes would make the premises far more attractive and cost less in heating and maintenance. This combined with the provision of disabled facilities would lead to wider use of the buildings by our family and the community.

Agreement to proceed in principle and to obtain quotes was given at the church Annual General Meeting in April 1999. In order to manage a development of this size project groups were set up these were:-

Project Coordination Group -

Funding Group - Encourages church members to support the project and seeks support from external charities and funds.

Special Events Group - Organise a wide range of events to attract the local community and raise funds.

Publicity Group- Publicise the project purpose, progress and fund raising events to the church members and the wider community.

Detailed Design - To work closely with the Architect.

A professional architect was appointed and he, working closely with Keith Armstrong and John Wilkinson, carried out the detailed design work. During this phase a series of discussions and presentations were made to church members detailing the progress of the design. There was much discussion about storage ( a problem with the existing building) and the kitchen. The latter was deemed important enough to set up a separate design team. These presentations and discussions provided a mechanism by which all the members could participate in the design process and many features of final design arose as a result. Fundraising also progressed in parallel to the design and we believed that on a rough approximation our estimate of funds available could support the new building.
Commencement of construction

Just as we had reached this happy balance, a crack was discovered in the church heating oil fired boiler and it would have to be replaced. It was necessary to include in our budget provision to replace the church heating system. Peter Hinchley embarked upon designing a new system and the search for funding was intensified. The final building design was put out to tender and following close examination Hobson Smith were the preferred contractor to carry out the work. A meeting of the Church Council was held on the 25th January 2001 where a presentation was made on the tender and on the heating options. The highest cost estimate based on the tender, replacing the heating, interest charges, sundries and contingencies was £265,000 Taking into account the projections for fundraising £265,000 was an achievable target. The Church Council thought so too and approval to place the orders was given up to a budget maximum of £265,000

Fundraising

The most difficult part of any project is raising the funds. This was started at a very early stage in the project. The first step was to see how much the membership and friends could support the project. A letter was sent out to all church members in August 1999 asking for pledges or donations. Over a five year period we anticipate raising over 40% of the money from this source including contribution from the church funds and tax refunds.

The Special Events group has been very busy over the last two years currently it has raised over £12,000 and is on track for a final target of £30,000. The types of event organised were Jumble Sales, Quizzes, Coffee mornings, a non event, holiday auction, summer barbecue, Christmas fare, valentines diner, concerts, Magic Circle evening, table top sale, bring and buy bookstall, bottle of change, Smartie tubes, Easter eggs.

Some of the more memorable events were recorded in Snippets and below are a few extracts:-

"April was a record month with receipts of £2680 of which £1729 came from pledges / donations from our membership. Bring and buy books, Smartie tubes and the Change Bottle raised £92. The sale of music tapes made in the Church raised a marvellous £90 and money from the quiz sheets came to £26. A jumble sale and a "none - event" arranged by the Fund Raising group produced totals of £331 and £374 respectively".

"Fund raising efforts in June produced £895. This included the magnificent sum of £555 from the barbecue held in Alan and Margaret Cockerill's garden". "The Valentine Dinner was a great success, enjoyed by all who were present and we are grateful to all those who made this event possible. The Table Top sale was reasonably well supported; the very successful Magician's Night was one of the highlights of the year and it was good to see so many young people there. The event raised around £400 for our fund. The jumble sale held in March was our last event before our rebuild and produced a further sum of £500".

John Lambert wrote to over 300 charitable trusts, out of these 9 made donations totaling £34,700 these were;

Jack Brunton Charitable Trust £20,000
Garfield Weston Foundation £5000
The Norwood and Newton Settlement £4000
The Hedley Foundation £2000
William Webster Charitable Trust £2000
The Bernard Sunley Charitable Foundation £1000
The Mollie Croysdale Charitable Trust £200
The Rothley Trust £200
Allchurches Trust Ltd. £150


Most of the remaining funds came from the circuit (£50,000), the Rank Trust (£34,000) and the Methodist Connexional Property Grant (£8,000).

Our thanks go to everyone who has supported this project.

The Construction Phase


Construction of the new roof
 Work on the buildings was scheduled to start on the 17th April 2001. A letter was sent to all residents of Marton Moor Road and Connaught Road advising them of the start of construction and asking for their patience. Complaints have been very few and our thanks go to the local residents who must have had their peace disrupted at times. The early work involved wrecking the roof and the internal walls so all the rooms had to be cleared and the circuit office moved into the Church vestry and choir room. The amount of items that had collected in store cupboards over the last 40 years is difficult to appreciate. We had to be quite ruthless in discarding some items, the remainder were stored in a hired steel container and in member's garages. The construction phase went well. The roof trusses were delivered a few days later than scheduled however it was good to see the pitched roof go on. Following the roof completion the remainder went very quickly. The buildings were handed over for use on the 3rd September 2001 the project having taken about 140 days.

The Future

For the last two years the Renewal Project has, of necessity, been mostly concerned with the premises. Although there is still money to raise, our focus is now the use which we will make of them and how that will enhance the mission of the Church. There are exciting times ahead and we welcome anyone who is interested to get involved with us.

We had an open church meeting in April, once the building work was underway, and thought further about what new things we wanted to happen on the premises. There were lots of ideas. Already some of them have started. There are three adult education classes weekly, a social/games afternoon is organised for Mondays at 2pm, the mobile library service is calling every three weeks on a Tuesday at 11.30am, and we are recruiting volunteers to run both junior and senior youth clubs. We are also hosting a Justice and Peace Group for people from the other local churches and the community. Enquiries are coming from individuals and groups who want to make use of our premises. And there are still more ideas for us to work on.

Alongside, all of this, is our commitment to take forward the Gospel values of justice and righteousness and love. So we continue to spend time together in study, in prayer and in worship. We try to meet the needs of our local community and further afield, through the giving of our time and our resources. Our fund raising for the premises has been and will, in the immediate future, continue to be time consuming but it has not and will not take up all our resources.

We are thankful for all that has happened through the years in Christ's name in this Church. For the people who have worked so hard to bring us to this point in time. Now, we go forward as 'living stones' to take forward the work of Jesus Christ in this place.