Landmark church gets a face-lift

Stonemasons are working 'up in the gods' as they tackle a major repair project on weather-beaten windows in one of Norfolk's landmark churches.The elements have eaten away at the stonework and the lead in the clerestory and it will take 12 weeks and �40,000 to put right.

Stonemasons are working 'up in the gods' as they tackle a major repair project on weather-beaten windows in one of Norfolk's landmark churches.

The elements have eaten away at the stonework and the lead in the clerestory and it will take 12 weeks and �40,000 to put right.

Churchgoers and visitors going inside will see scaffolding towering up to the windows 40ft above the pews, and plastic sheeting to hold back the dust as work gets under way.

High above, craftsmen are cutting out damaged stonework from the mullions and tracery of the six windows.

Stonemason Andy Boughton said the worst bits would be removed, measured and moulds created, to enable replacement Bath stone pieces to be made in his Hertfordshire workshop and fitted later in the project using lime mortar.

The church's professional advisor Simon Purslow, a member of the congregation and former churchwarden, said damaged lead work and metal pane supports would also be replaced.

Pencilled writings near one of the windows showed the last repairs were done in 1953 by Norwich stonemasons A J Woods.

Works were funded by bequests left to the church, as government grants were hard to get because they favoured churches with less access to funding.

Collection plates at services gathered money which went towards general running costs, Cromer's �100,000 share paid to the diocese, and improvements such as new audio visual equipment, said Mr Purslow.