Some photos taken this week to show the ongoing redevelopment of St Marie’s Church. The photos were taken by Dave Clark from John Turner Construction Ltd. Thank you, Dave!

A shot from the roof which shows progress on the car park.

The refurbished partition wall, now positioned below the organ loft.

Laying plywood decking to the new extension roof ready to receive insulation and the single ply water proof membrane.

Parapet ready to receive new stone coping.

Patch pointing to existing brickwork including gothic stone arched hood repair.

Another shapshot in time of Halton & St Helens VCA’s redevelopment of St Marie’s Church in Widnes. As always, the photos have been provided by Dave Clark from John Turner Construction

Few of us will have the opportunity to be this high up in the building. The organ can be seen below the dust sheets.

Example of Coniston Blue Slate scalpings for the perimeter feature border to the new car park, in keeping with the blue brick banding to match the Church’s features.

Some of the best action from this week, as captured by Dave Clark from John Turner Construction Ltd.

The extension (which will be the entrance into St Marie’s) starts to take shape.

The car park spaces are looking handsome already.

The view from the Bell Tower showing work on the roof and the car park.

Hello again,

Another quick update on another fantastic heritage workshop based at St Marie’s Church.

This one will be Friday 4th April (starting at 13.30) and the topic is Stone Replacement. Heritage experts from Aura Conservation will demonstrate the safe removal and replacement of damaged stone inside the Church.

Places are very limited for this workshop (there’s a maximum of 8 attendees) and will be distributed on a first come, first served basis.

The workshops will be jointly hosted by Halton & St Helens VCA, Aura Conservation Limited and John Turner Construction Group and are supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund.

To book your place, e-mail mroberts@haltonsthelensvca.org.uk

I hope to hear from you soon.

Many thanks,

Matthew Roberts

Hello,

I hope this blog post finds you well.

Would you be interested in finding out about the techniques being used in the redevelopment of the building? If so, would you like to see some of our heritage experts at work?

Halton & St Helens VCA are planning another workshop event. This one will be on Wednesday 26th March from 10.30am and we’d be thrilled if you wanted to join us on site.

The topic for this workshop will be Joinery.

If you’re anything like me, you’ll be delighted at the chance to simply have a look inside the church and see what’s going on and how the redevelopment is progressing, but you’ll also have the chance to learn about the reinstatement of the modified glazed screen below the organ loft. I’m pretty sure that the screen used to be part of the entrance porch for St Marie’s, but I’m happy to be corrected.

The workshop will be lead by our joinery experts from John Turner Construction Ltd.

Places are very limited for this workshop (there’s a maximum of 5 attendees) and will be distributed on a first come, first served basis.

The workshops will be jointly hosted by Halton & St Helens VCA, Aura Conservation Limited and John Turner Construction Group and are supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund.

To book your place, e-mail mroberts@haltonsthelensvca.org.uk

I hope to hear from you soon.

Many thanks,

Matthew Roberts

On Wednesday 12th March, our colleagues from Aura Conservation provided local residents with the opportunity to see their heritage experts at work on the redevelopment of St Marie’s Church.

The topic for this Workshop was Repointing, Descaling & Marble Cleaning and it was attended by 11 people.

Nearly all of the attendees felt they were more interested in the topic and local heritage generally after attending the workshop (with a few maintaining an existing 10 out of 10 appreciation for the topic).

During the workshop we were guided by Gareth Liddle from Aura Conservation and got to watch master craftsman Tom Roberts in action.

Here’s the feedback with received from attendees:

– Very impressed with the skills and techniques being used.
– It was very good. I’ve done pointing, but not like that!
– I thought it was really informative and nice to see the difference the work is making and that it’s being done sympathetically.
– I was very moved by seeing the transformation. I loved Tom’s craftsmanship and expertise.
– Fascinating to see the level of care taken over the pointing. Very interesting to hear and see the marble cleaning.
– I enjoyed it. Great to see it in it’s different stages.
– Inspiring to see it all coming back to life.
– It’s amazing how time consuming the work is.
– Very well organised. Fascinating. I learnt a lot about the skills involved.
– it was really informative. Everything was explained brilliantly.
– Very interesting and very informative.

Here are some photos I took on the day:

Tom in repointing action seen here “raking out”.

L to R: Bev, Gareth, Steph, Tommy & Peter watch Tom at work

Tom applies the freshly made pointing mix

L to R: Billy, Agnes, Sue, Roger and Peter watch Tom repointing

A freshly repointed wall and a job well done.

The guys see inside the church for the first time. from L to R: Steph, Tommy, Gareth, Peter and Tony.

The view inside the church. I’m sure we left an altar in here somewhere.

Tom showed us the descalling process

Tom’s work protects the stone from future damage from rain water

There’s more marble to clean than the team imagined.

Tommy and Bev look on as Tom applies a mild detergent to the marble

Tom steam cleans the marble on the altar

It’s another job well done. Thanks Tom!

Many thanks to Gareth and Tom for taking the time to share their expertise.

You can find out more about Aura Conservation by visiting their website: http://www.auraltd.co.uk

Matthew Roberts

On Thursday 6th and Friday 7th March, Silvano Cioci, from North West Murals Ltd provided local people with some superb workshops which explained the process he follows whilst restoring a painting.

Silvano generously allowed us to film him whilst he provided this brief overview of his work.

For more information on Silvano, please visit http://www.northwestmurals.co.uk

Thanks again to Silvano for being so generous with his time.

We hope you enjoy it.

Matthew

Here are some photos (as discovered by my wife, Helen).

Anything to say about what’s going on in them? If so, please leave a comment below.

I hope you like them as much as I do.

Matthew

Does anyone know what the building is between the church and the terrace house? Also, does anyone know the name of the pub on the left of the photo?

Thank you so much to everyone who came along and enjoyed the Painting Restoration Workshops we held this week at St Marie’s.

The workshops were delivered by the magnificent Silvano Cioci Faux (from North West Murals). I will be posting a few more articles about Silvano on the blog. One where he explains the techniques he uses whilst restoring paintings and another on how he first got involved in the restoration business.

I’m delighted to report that both of the workshops were “sold out”. Silvano was (in my opinion) a superb host and the feedback we received was extremely positive.

The attendees were quizzed before and after the workshop. The questions beforehand gauged how interested they were in Painting Restoration, local heritage and St Marie’s itself. I’m pleased to report that everyone was more interested (or still as interested) in all of the above afterwards. Some attendees had said their interest or excitement was already at 10 out of 10 so they hadn’t left themselves much room for improvement!

Here are the comments we received:

– It was very informative.
-Silvano was very easy to understand. He answered our questions intelligently and was a very nice man.
– I’m amazed by what I learned. I can’t believe it’s real gold in the paintings.
– It’s amazing what they can do!
– Brilliant. I want more workshops.
– It was fascinating. I look forward to seeing the film.
– Really interesting.
– Today was fascinating, interesting and informative.

Here are some photos from the workshops:

The painting (from the altar at St Marie’s) that Silvano was working on. You can see the difference between the half of the halo that Silvano had restored and the half he had yet to clean.

Roger, Tommy, Billy and John listen intently to Silvano.

Silvano outlines his work to Peter, Tony, Louise and Bev.

The guys watch on as Silvano gives the halo it’s original shine back. Note the difference also at the bottom of the painting (which Silvano had already restored).

Workshop 1 Team Photo: Roger, Billy, Silvano, John & Tommy.

Silvano explains the tools/solutions he uses to clean the paintings. You can’t beat some synthetic Italian saliva!

Silvano uses photographs on his iPad to show Tony & company the impact of his work.

Roger, Tommy, Billy and John listen as Silvano explains the restoration process.

Silvano shows the group his magnifying glasses and fine fibre optic brush for cleaning the paintings.

Mixing a solution for cleaning the painting. I think this was a mix of synthetic salvia and special soap.

Peter and Tony lean in to get a closer look at Silvano’s handiwork.

Workshop 2 Team Photo: Peter, Tony, Silvano, Louise and Bev.

A big thank you to Silvano and everyone who attended.

If you’d like to be notified about future workshops. Please e-mail mroberts@haltonsthelensvca.org.uk

Thanks very much.

Matthew Roberts

Silvano Cioci Faux (from North West Murals) is part of the team tasked with the redevelopment of St Marie’s Church in Widnes.

Silvano is responsible for Paintings Restoration. On Friday I had the pleasure of sitting down with him for a chat.

In this interview he explains how he first became interested in working in this field, other heritage projects he’s worked on in the past and we discuss whether Italians have provided the world with its greatest artists.

I am very grateful to Silvano for taking the time to talk to me.

For more information on Silvano (and his work), please visit http://www.northwestmurals.co.uk

Thanks.

Matthew