South Harrow church celebrates end of restoration work

A SOUTH Harrow church held a rededication ceremony on Sunday to mark the completion of works to repair and shore up the building.
Christ Church Roxeth in Roxeth Hill, which is led by Rector Mark Philps and attracts around 220 Anglican parishioners over three services each Sunday, began to show signs of severe subsidence several years ago.
Churchwarden Margaret Price said: "We had a lot of underpinning done and refurbishment of the toilets and restoration of the stained glass.
"We think we had subsidence because the foundations are only 3ft deep and 150 years old.
"The project has taken two or three years. It's been entirely funded by the congregation apart from a grant from the Diocese of Willesden."
Christ Church Roxeth was built in 1862 using designs from George Gilbert Scott, the architect of St Pancras Station in north London and it is now a Grade II Listed building.
"We had been observing the problems for the last few years and it got to the stage where it needed action," said Mrs Price.
"We had to section off the chancel while it was being repaired. We couldn't use that for two or three months.
"The east wall of the church was falling away from the main building and had to be held up for a year or two and the stonework started to deteriorate.
"The stone around the stained glass was crumbling and the roof had to be tied into the main building.
"But just as we finished the first phase, we noticed damage to the north side and rather than wait until it got really bad, we decided to deal with it straight away, and that cost us quite a bit more."
Sunday's rededication ceremony was attended by the deputy mayor Councillor Chris Mote and his wife and Archdeacon of Northolt, Rachel Treweek.
Mrs Price said: "We had some of the builders come along, the structural engineer and the architect. We had a good turnout."