Restoration work to start on Sannox Church
‘It will be so good to see the bell tower restored to its former glory’
The Sannox Christian Centre is to start work on the restoration of the Sannox Church roof and bell tower.
Over the past year, Dundarroch Cottage was fully refurbished to provide accommodation for nine guests in four en suite rooms, as previously reported in the Banner. This also included a total refurbishment of the lounge and dining areas and kitchen. They received £30,000 in donations for the materials and the work was done by volunteers and local tradesmen – and many people are now enjoying the comfortable, warm new Dundarroch.
The centre were also given a Celtic Cross by a church in Balfron. It was made by one of its members and the church paid for the oak and steel foundation. The cross now stands proudly onsite and has attracted many favourable comments.
The next phase of development is the refurbishment of the church roof and bell tower. The centre applied for a grant of £50,000 for the second time but was unsuccessful despite support from the community and North Ayrshire Council’s planning department. So it has been decided to do it the same way as Dundarroch – a bit at a time.
The bell tower is in serious need of repair so that is where it will start. The centre has received $2,000 (£1,700) from a family in Texas whose ancestors came from Arran and a donation of £3,000. This is the start of the roof fund and they plan to start building work soon.
People and finance
George Hazel of the Sannox Christian Centre said: ‘We believe God will provide the resources in terms of people and finance as we progress just as He did for Dundarroch. It will be so good to see the bell tower restored to its former glory.
‘The first thing we need, however, is scaffolding. To comply with health and safety, and to ensure the safety of the workers, we need to encase the bell tower in scaffolding. This is ex- pensive to hire or buy and so we are looking for someone to lend us scaffolding for about a year to complete the bell tower and roof. If anybody can help with this, it would be much appreciated.
‘Sannox Church has stood the test of time for 200 years and has served the community on Arran. Now it is time to restore it so that it can serve for another 200 years. The support we have received from the community over these four years has been wonderful, thank you. It has been such an encouragement.
‘We look forward to working together to complete this next phase of restoration at Sannox.’