Progress on the new Lighting in St Mary's
Our New Lighting – Just About Finished!
By the time you read this, we’ll be on the final few tasks on the installation of the lighting and we’ll be ready for the Service of Light at 6:30pm on Sunday 8th March – all welcome!
As I write I’ve just returned from the church having overseen the removal of the scaffolding in the chancel and sanctuary. The damage to the plasterwork up at the clerestory windows has been repaired and all of the lights in the chancel and sanctuary have been installed, set in the right direction and focussed. The view from the scaffolding was quite something!!
Really good progress has been made in January, in addition to the work in the chancel and sanctuary, the final, new lights were fitted in the north chapel and the rest of the old cabling and lighting removed. The same was done in the north aisle, south aisle and south chapel. The main task for February was to install the rest of the lighting in the nave. I mentioned in my February Parish News update that we handed over a snagging list to the designers, following our experience with the lights in December. They assessed this in detail noting that there are quite a few more lights to fit at the east end of the nave and in the children’s corner which will resolve most of our questions. At the time of writing, we estimate that all of the installation at ceiling level will be completed by Friday 13th February.
Other work in February has been to install the equipment needed so that some of the new lights become emergency lights and come on if the power to the lighting is lost and to focus all the lights installed since the new year. The focussing needs to be done when it’s dark and our designers and installers worked late on most evenings in w/c 23rd February. They also will be installing the lighting in the clergy vestry, south porch, outside the south porch and west door and at the disabled parking area. It is possible that some of this work might go on beyond 8th March but, as it does not involve the use of scaffolding towers, it won’t disrupt services and events in the church.
The first week of March will involve a lot of programming of the control buttons, or scenes. I’ve mentioned this before, Vivian, Paula and I did a lot of programming in November but now we must adjust the scenes to include the further lights installed since then. We’ll also be setting new scenes such as for the Wednesday 9:30am Holy Communion service.
The first chance to see all of the new lighting will be on Sunday 8th March at the Service of Light. And then the Wednesday 9:30am Holy Communion service moves back into the church on Wednesday 11th March.
Finally, there can be interesting finds when there’s work in the church. It would seem that “PK” was asked to create some ventilation in the windows at the top of the south side of the chancel when some of the glazing was replaced in 1972!
Steve Hasler
5th February 2026