St Mary’s Petworth Spire Re-instatement
The purpose of the St Mary’s Petworth Spire Re-instatement project is to facilitate the re-instatement of the spire on St Mary’s Church, Petworth.
The spire has centuries of historical precedent. Its re-instatement will restore the church’s traditional position as the visual focus of the town and greatly enhance the aesthetic merit of the surrounding landscape of the West Sussex Weald.
At the same time, this endeavour offers the opportunity to explore the possibility of attracting a mobile phone company to install a phone mast inside the new spire. This would deliver a considerable benefit to the community by transforming Petworth’s currently poor mobile reception.
Architectural plans for a new spire were prepared around the millennium by the conservation architect Andrew Harris. These plans are now being assessed by the international firm of civil engineers Ramboll, who are kindly conducting this study for us on a no-cost basis.
The project will operate under the auspices of the Friends of St. Mary's Petworth (charity no. 1161209). However there will be no expectation of any contribution from the Church itself, which already has plenty of demands on its limited funding. The reinstatement of a new spire will be entirely ‘self-funded', so it will not draw monies away from the many other important ongoing needs of the church.
The spire has centuries of historical precedent. Its re-instatement will restore the church’s traditional position as the visual focus of the town and greatly enhance the aesthetic merit of the surrounding landscape of the West Sussex Weald.
At the same time, this endeavour offers the opportunity to explore the possibility of attracting a mobile phone company to install a phone mast inside the new spire. This would deliver a considerable benefit to the community by transforming Petworth’s currently poor mobile reception.
Architectural plans for a new spire were prepared around the millennium by the conservation architect Andrew Harris. These plans are now being assessed by the international firm of civil engineers Ramboll, who are kindly conducting this study for us on a no-cost basis.
The project will operate under the auspices of the Friends of St. Mary's Petworth (charity no. 1161209). However there will be no expectation of any contribution from the Church itself, which already has plenty of demands on its limited funding. The reinstatement of a new spire will be entirely ‘self-funded', so it will not draw monies away from the many other important ongoing needs of the church.
Members of the Steering Group formed are:
Alexandra Soskin (Chairman). Rob Evans, Andre Harris, Richard Hodgson, Nick Wheeler
Alexandra Soskin (Chairman). Rob Evans, Andre Harris, Richard Hodgson, Nick Wheeler
