Clearing up and finishing off

Clockwise from top left: The new view from the accessible entrance: the new floor viewed from the font: clearing up the protective flooring: laying tiles at the foot of the pillars

Just take a look at that!

The hoardings have gone and the new floor can be seen as soon as you enter the Priory through the accessible entrance.

Your Priory will be back, fully functioning for worship, visitors and events from Easter Day.

It’s an amazing achievement of dedicated work by the teams of skilled craftspeople from Reynolds Conservation Ltd, Grange Heating and Kelsound, overseen and assisted by volunteers from the Priory.

Today, as everyone entering the Priory literally gasped at the difference, the tiles filling the gaps at the base of the Romanesque columns were being laid. Reclaimed from Staffordshire, they look perfect in their new location.

Meanwhile the cover protecting the Victorian tiled floor was being lifted and the giant industrial vacuum was being wielded at full throttle removing weeks worth of floor-levelling dust.

Later this week, currently planned to be Thursday afternoon and Saturday, teams of Priory cleaning volunteers will tackle the finer details, aiming to remove the interesting ‘crunch’ on tiled floors and the dust in the eastern end of the Priory.

Do come in and have a look (check the calendar in case of short-notice closures) as the final stages of this fabulous project draw to a close.

’Thank you’, to all the wonderful individual donors and charitable trusts who have made this possible. There’s still a little more to be raised, so if you’d like to support the nave floor levelling project, now’s your chance!