Progress on the new Lighting in St Mary's
Initial Experience and Next Steps - January 2026
It seems like a long time since my last update in the Parish News and a lot has happened since that was written on 2nd November. We were handed over about 40% of the new lighting by the end of November and also the temporary controls for these. The lights we can now control are for the south aisle, north aisle and downlights for the pews in the nave. The large number of services and concerts in December, many of which were when it was dark, gave us a very good opportunity to assess the lighting and identify areas where it appears to be insufficient.
Before all that, Paula Griffiths, Vivian Falk and I spent some time setting the controls so that we can press one button to bring on the lights, from those installed and handed over to us, which are needed for, e.g., the 8am service on a Sunday, the 10:30am service on the first Sunday of the month, the 10:30am service on the second Sunday etc. We’ll add to these settings when we get the rest of the lighting handed over to us in February.
What have we found based on our experience in December? First, we received a lot of very positive comments about the atmosphere and ambience which the new lighting creates in the building. Areas specifically mentioned include the uplighting of the side aisle ceilings, the highlighting of the cross in the Remembrance Chapel, the highlighting of the statues in the north and south aisles and the font. Thank you to all who have commented and all who provided feedback where the lighting appears to be insufficient. Your comments have been added to those we identified ourselves and we have provided our list to the lighting designers. Vivian and I met with them on Monday 5th January and they have indicated that many of the items in our list are because only a portion of the lights for those areas have been passed over to us so far. E.g., we noticed that the area below and on the chancel steps, which is used to lead services and for our choir as well as by performers at concerts, has darker patches – we don’t yet have all the lights for this area. The same is true of the childrens’ corner which is much too dark except on a very sunny day. And we don’t yet have any uplighting in the nave which impacts the overall brightness there. We also spotted about four pews on the south aisle which are very poorly lit and we’ve been told that the light for these needs to be re-focussed. Our lighting designers will review our comments and propose solutions to each. In the meantime, if you spot anything or experience poor lighting in the side aisles or the nave, please do let Vivian or me know, so that we can ask for this to be addressed.
The electrical contractors installing the lighting re-started on Friday 2nd January removing the choir stall lights so that they don’t get damaged when there is work going on above them. The work to remove the old lighting in the sanctuary and chancel started on Monday 5th January and you’ll have noticed the scaffold towers used by our contractors in this area during January.
On the side of the chancel where the organ is located, we have had scaffolding in place during January. We also have some damage to and cracks in the plasterwork on that side which we are taking the opportunity to address while the main altar is out of use. Their towers will not safely reach high enough for the plasterwork repairs and the scaffolding will also be used by the lighting installers. I’m hopeful that by the time you read this, the scaffolding will have been removed or is being taken away. While all of this work was going on, the main altar, chancel and sanctuary have been out of use. Thank you for your patience with this, in particular to our choir members who have been displaced for the whole of January and our 8am congregation who have been worshipping in the south aisle and receiving Holy Communion at the south altar throughout the month.
The installation plan for January was to tackle the chancel and sanctuary from 5th to 23rd and complete the installation in the south chapel/choir vestry from 26th to 30th. The north chapel and the nave lighting will be completed in the first two weeks of February followed by final fixing of all the new cabling in the north and south aisles. Then, Paula, Vivian and I get to reset all the scenes after further control panels have been installed at the west door, south chapel door, in the north chapel and the temporary, main panel on the welcome furniture at the west end of the nave has been replaced. Further training will then be given on how the controls work and what to do when unlocking and locking the church.
The intent, which we will meet, is to have all of the internal lighting completed well in time for the Service of Light at 6:30pm on Sunday 8th March – see the separate article in the Febraury edition of our Parish News for more details. It is possible that some of the external lighting, e.g. at the west entrance or for the disabled parking area, will be finished in March. Watch this space for more details or look at the display at the back of the church.
Steve Hasler
7th January 2026 (written for the February editon of Parish News)