A note about the tower................really to demonstrate I actually went up
to the top!
Patrick Crawford the architect and Philip Cooper the engineer will give us a
full report, but the evidence of damage is all too obvious, which you will see
from the pictures. I have gone all the way round with him and clearly urgent
remedial works of a permanent nature are needed.
The wooden spire is too light (cheap!) for the tower and is moving about. This
has gone on since it was built and others have tried unsuccessfully to repair
it. The top of the tower, where it meets the spire, is bowed and some coping
stones are coming away. Left alone, it will at some point fall down - but not
tomorrow. What Patrick will recommend is for the top of the tower to be pinioned
in some way. He will contact us, Mary Saunders and the Registrar for a faculty,
and hopefully we can get it done whilst the scaffolding is in place - we cannot
afford to take it down and then put it up again whilst we await the normal
processes. Once he has prepared a report and knows what type of contractor we
need, he will be in touch ASAP.
David Osborn
9 August 2006
