St Saviour’s to get £350k of repairs...

Urgent repairs costing £350,000 are to be carried out to Bridge of Allan’s B-listed St Saviour’s Episcopal Church.

Surveys carried out by structural engineers early last year on the building, which dates from the mid 19th century, found repairs to its roofs and to masonry were required within two years.

Work on the Gothic style building at the junction of Fountain Road and Keir Street will begin this summer and is expected to continue into next year.

St Saviour’s Rector of 12 years Dominic Ind explained: “We do not have a large congregation. In the main the bulk of the money for the project has come from grants.

“Heritage Lottery Fund and Historic Environment Scotland have contributed towards the project.

“A vestry (church council) sub-committee, has been overseeing the work which is expected to cost £350,000. “The building is 150 years old and in need of a lot of care. “Like so many churches you can only patch things up so far until you have to tackle the problem.

“It’s a stereotypical fixing of the church roof. Later on in the year, the scaffolding will go up. The priority is to get the roof into a good state of repair as well as some internal work inside the church.”

A condition survey report states that little slating work has been carried out on the roofs on the various sections of the church since it was built.

It states:‘It is thought that none of these roofs has ever been completely re-slated since construction in 1856 (nave, chancel, boiler house/shed) and 1871 (nave, west extension and porch).

‘The slating has failed on places on the roof, particularly at ridges (area of nave, south pitch at west and re-slated three years ago) and side abutments, there are many slipped slates and a complete re-slating is now required.

‘The existing lead flashings are old and worn and should be replaced with improved details in places.

‘The vestry Welsh-slated roof, dating more recently from 1922, appears in good condition.

‘Complete reslating [of the vestry] is not considered necessary, but some repairs to slating and leadwork are required.’

A listed building planning application has been lodged with Stirling Council – following the 2017 surveys‘to note areas requiring urgent conservation and repair.’

St Saviour’s was listed Grade-B in 1977 and is in the Bridge of Allan Conservation Area.

The architect’s report also points out:‘It should be noted that the church is in an area which has a history of building movement and settlement, and the church shows evidence of this in cracks through masonry joints and units and misalignment of building elements.’