The Civic Society were critical of some aspects of the plans as
published by the church authorities in advance of their consideration
of the Pastoral Scheme. However, the prospective developer has since
made a full presentation to the committee, explaining in more detail
the full scope of their intentions. This has allayed the committee's
concerns are they are now in full support of the proposals.
It
was in Spring 2003 that an article appeared in Bollington Live!
about the threatened closure of St John’s church on Church
Street. Our worst fears came to pass and the building
has remained empty and unused since the end of May 2003. That
article ended with the suggestion that the future of the church
and the graveyard was a project that the Civic Society should
tackle.
Various rumours circulated about the 1834 building,
with views ranging from its potential to be developed for flats,
as a heritage centre, as a larger location for the Bridgend Centre
or its partial demolition to produce an attractive open space with
a better managed and improved graveyard. We are sure that many
have thought of other ideas, but whatever they are they will have
to be financially viable. In 2003 a brief was prepared for a thorough
feasibility study to look into the options, but nothing was progressed
at that time. (Look
at the brief)
Bollington Civic Society considered that it was time for
the local community to come together to try to formulate a plan
of action that would resolve the issues, before the building deteriorated
further, or was vandalised, was the subject of a fire or was developed
by a private developer in a way that the community did not want.
Graham Barrow
Chairman
Bollington Civic Society
By 2010 we have been unable to find any satisfactory financially
viable use for the building and are reluctanly resigned to it being
converted for residential use. The Church Commissioners now have
one offer which proposes just that and have begun their Pastoral
Scheme procedures to enable a sale. Please
see
below.
'Friends of St John's Church'
In order to gain a wider interest the Civic Society called a public meeting on 3rd April 2008 - 60 people turned up! The 'Friends of St John's Church' was established as a sub-committee of Bollington Civic Society.
Unfortunately there was very little action that they could take.
Interior view - the chairs have been removed but much else remains
The dark mark to the right of the ceiling is undecorated plaster at a point where damp had damaged the building. The leak was repaired and the damp plaster replaced but never decorated.
Church for Sale!
The church was put up for sale by the Chester Diocesan
Board of Finance & The Church Commissioners with a call for
tenders by 17th July 2008.
Pastoral Scheme published
The Church Commissioners have published (in January 2010) a Pastoral
Scheme for the disposal of St John's church and part of the churchyard
for residential use. The full document can be seen at the
Library.
Representations had to be made by 25th February 2010.
The church has been closed since May 2003 and was formally declared
closed for public worship on 10th June 2006. Since 2007 the building
has been open for offers from those wishing to turn it to another
use. This has resulted in a single offer and a proposal to convert
the building to residential use.
This proposal is outlined in clause 1 of the Pastoral Scheme.
Clause 2 establishes the need to maintain public access into and
around the churchyard for the purposes of burials, graveyard
maintenance, and family visits.
A plan of the area is attached to the scheme and shows that a
part of the graveyard will be included in the domestic area. The
affected part is to the right of the present entrance (when looking
at the church from Church Street). This will extend in an irregular
manner to the boundary wall adjacent to no.3 Church Street. Part
of the purpose of this land is to provide an additional entrance,
creating a drive through, and sufficient parking for the residents
of the new accommodation as well as some visitor parking for those
attending the graveyard. Some gravestones and monuments will require
removal or re-positioning but no graves will be moved.
We are now advised that the parking area in the graveyard will
have places for 32 vehicles. Six of these are for visitors to the
graveyard leaving 26 for residents of the church! That suggests
13 apartments, rather more than the three or four we might have
hoped for.
Bollington Civic Society has responded with the following comments
...
We are supportive of your proposed change of use of St John's
Church to domestic use. However, we do have an important concern.
Your car park layout shows 32 spaces of which six are for visitors.
That implies 26 for residents. Under present planning guidelines
of two or less parking spaces per dwelling unit that implies
13 or more units in the church, that is flats or apartments.
We are not supportive of any proposal to create that many units
in this building. We would be more likely to support a proposal
to convert to, say, five town houses, one per bay of the building.
There are a number of reasons for this view ...
- There is
a considerable excess of small units in Bollington
and a shortage of larger family homes.
- We want to keep the additional traffic load on Church Street
to a minimum. There is already permission for 66
further units that would use the street, with a probability
of four more being permitted shortly and others in future.
Church Street is already showing considerable signs of stress
due to excessive traffic, particularly trucks servicing the
Tullis Russell paper mill, even before that additional load.
- Flats tend to be occupied by single persons who often,
unfortunately, care little about their homes
or immediate environment. Families would be much more suitable
in this respect.
We would like to see a restriction to prevent fences,
walls, hedges or any other divide or obstruction
being erected along any of the boundaries between
the domestic property and the churchyard.
We would
like to see a restriction to prevent householders establishing
or constructing stores, sheds, bicycle storage, play equipment,
etc. outside the main building. We acknowledge the need for
a rubbish bin pen and the householders should be limited to this.
We
also think that it would be better to have the flow of traffic
clockwise through the parking area rather than anticlockwise
as shown on your drawing.
We would be interested to know what
arrangements are to be made for the maintenance of the graveyard.
We would like the developer to be required to set
up an arrangement so that the residents are responsible
for subscribing to a community fund dedicated to
the regular necessary maintenance of the land around
the church in perpetuity. We will, in any case, press
Cheshire East Council to establish a 106 agreement
to provide for works designed to improve the churchyard,
pollard many of the overgrown trees around the church,
and clear the trees and shrubs that have grown in
inappropriate places followed by re-alignment of
monuments disfigured by such growth. If these works
could be required by your sale contract so much the
better.
The residents' fund should also be responsible
for the ongoing maintenance of the outside of the building
and of the tower, inside and out.
We would also like
a water tap somewhere on the south east side for the use of
those maintaining their memorials in the Columbarium.
The building1
The Grade II listed building of St John's church stands on a steeply
sloping site on the easterly side of Bollington. This is a Commissioner's
church built 1832-4 by Hayley and Brown on land given by local
MP William Turner of Shrigley Hall. The basic style is simple and
consistent.The walls are pierced by large regularly space pointed
lancets and splayed reveals. It comprises a five bay nave with
a shallow projecting sanctuary and west tower. The parapets are
continuously embattled around the church and, the typically small,
three stage west tower. Externally the building is unchanged but
the interior has been altered on a number of occasions during the
church's history and little of the original interior survives.
Reference
- Based on Church Commissioners, in their Pastoral Scheme
Developer's
Public Consultation