Wood Reclaim Project complete

The Belfrey has now removed and reclaimed much of the wood from its church building before it starts Construction. As part of its sustainability strategy ,and to capture the memories and connections people have with The Belfrey, it has sought to meticulously reclaim the wood for it to be remade into quality furniture items that can be enjoyed by people for generations to come.

York based conservation contractor Pinnacle Group carefully took down the wooden pews, Narthex screen and gallery (as well as some floor tiles) in the Grade I listed church and then shipped it to furniture maker Stewart Long Interiors, based in Lincoln. Stewart has been converting the wooden items into furniture including pew seats, benches, footstools, tables, and bespoke furniture. Members of the church or the public can purchase items and it is expected that some items can be purchased for use in the hospitality sector. The aim for particular wood features like the Georgian staircases and balustrades is to carefully reconstruct them in another location. 

In addition, a local Social Enterprise has been given some of the wood from which they have created specific items including a communion table and holding crosses.

“All the people we have worked with on this pre contract project have been simply brilliant, going above and beyond the original requirements” comments Gillian Shepherd, Impact Project Manager.  “Since the start of Impact, sustainability has been a key priority for The Belfrey. We have adopted the One Planet Living Framework as a template to work towards both the repairs and renovation so it was important that we could repurpose the wood well.”

Andy Baker, Interim Priest in Charge at The Belfrey explained “We are first and foremost a place of worship and mission, and in order to fulfill the church’s potential to welcome many more people into the building it has become necessary to open things up and remove the restrictive wooden fittings. This allows for the creation of a flexible open space with level access throughout and the opportunity to make the building fit for purpose for generations to come; which is hugely exciting. We wanted to treat the wood with great care and anyone with an attachment to the church could purchase a piece of it to keep”.

Further trial pits were dug understand the archaeology beneath and recorded by On-Site Archaeology. This helps the design team, particularly our Structural Engineers, know whether final adaptations need to be made to the proposed scheme and can reduce the risk of unexpected finds during construction.  

Once again the slender columns and the delicacy of the perpendicular architecture are revealed at St Michael le Belfrey for a short period before Construction starts, expected to be this Spring. 

For details of the wooden furniture please see www.Belfrey.org/furniture. 50% of proceeds go to Impact.

Church building, following completion of wood reclaim at twilight.