Meldreth Matters, November 2020

Holy Trinity Church, COVID-19 and the Building The good news is that our Sunday services have resumed and the Church is open on weekdays for visits and private prayer. Life event services are also allowed and anyone wishing to arrange a baptism, wedding or funeral should contact the Vicar; these events are subject to limited attendance numbers and coronavirus hygiene regulations. For those families with young children, we very much hope that we can resume ‘Messy Church’ as soon as possible. For those who are shielding, self-isolating or otherwise unable to attend church in person, the main service each Sunday is broadcast live on Facebook.

Holy Trinity Meldreth is the only Grade I listed building in the village.

In recent years we have become concerned about the stonework and plasterwork of the building and in particular the dampness in the walls.

This is now becoming serious; work carried out in recent years has not helped and the problem appears to be getting worse. We received a generous gift from a resident of Meldreth which enabled us to instruct an architect’s practice in Cambridge specialising in the investigation, monitoring and control of environmental deterioration in historic buildings. We received their initial professional survey, findings and report in June 2020. This revealed just how wet the walls are and that parts of the decorative stonework, both inside and out, are suffering badly and will need extensive repairs. The report recommends further surveys of drains and soakaways, groundwater and stonework. We bear in mind in particular that if the piers and pillars surrounding the internal tower arch, which are one of the most important architectural features of the church, deteriorate much further, we risk losing our Grade I listing. This could mean that we will find it more difficult to attract funding and grants for repairs.

Meanwhile, the normal maintenance of the church building has to continue. In the past the costs of maintenance of the Church have been met from the annual fundraising events that we and the Friends of Holy Trinity (FOHT) have organised. We mention just the three largest events that have raised the most revenue: the summer fete, the car show in September and the Christmas tree festival. Of course, due to the regulations and restrictions surrounding the coronavirus outbreak, it has not been possible to hold these events. Only small scale fundraising is possible at the moment. We are grateful to Julie 18