Munn Chapel History | Future
The Munn Chapel Project
Restoration has now started !
These photographs illustrate the poor state that the Munn Chapel had become, of which the Quinquennial Report of 1993 stated: ‘pews .... in their present condition may be more of a liability than an asset. In the Eastern section the wall panelling is badly affected by its proximity to the damp North East corner and some parts of the floor have collapsed through rot or beetle infestation or both.’ There are references to the damp walls and the recommendation that furniture be moved out ‘owing to the adverse conditions already noted in there.’
We have no need for this seating in church - ‘though when the local school turns up with parents the rest of the church is full (so we can’t currently ‘spare’ a block of nave pews to provide a different facility). Like the Victorians we need a place to educate children; perhaps a glazed oak screen in the arches would provide a separated area for that. PCC meetings have taken place in people’s homes since the 19th Century at least; a small room within church, easier to heat, would fulfil that function too. The local community might well make use of such a room. It would be appropriate to have it again as a chapel (dedicated to St Margaret again) for quiet worship or discussion in small groups. We need a place to congregate after services with a cup of tea and biscuit, rather than continuing the potentially dangerous and inappropriate way we do this currently - and we note how places like Ospringe Church - also an ancient building - have cleverly hidden simple kitchen facilities inside oak cupboards. We also need a toilet - though I cannot see how the Munn Chapel could meet that need!
In short, church members have a vision of what might be possible if this unusable area (of which we are somewhat ashamed, given the excellent state of the fabric in the rest of the Church) were to be reordered. Such a project would ‘lift’ the whole building and be of benefit to the community. Removal of the rotten Victorian box pews would enable correction of the damp walls, eradication the various vermin in that area and allow proper circulation of air to restored fabric.
Since this project has been made public in the village there has been a welcome interest in the future use of this space. Sheldwich villagers (not just the religious) do display an ownership of their church and are pleased to think that the building might be more ‘open’ to them. The County Primary school wants to use the church more frequently and has asked if, when the new room is ready, they may use it for classwork when the national Curriculum syllabus requires them to study various aspects of faith. The recent Village Appraisal brought requests for the possible provision in the village of a meeting place for small groups looking at, say, heritage or genealogy. The person responsible for ministry to families likes to think there might be somewhere to meet young mums on certain occasions.
Not all the ideas will come to fruition, but we are encouraged by other suggestions - adult education, Sunday School, Choir training, craft studies, coffee mornings, discussion groups, uniformed organisations. It seems that given the total inadequacy of public transport in the village, the thought of developing both secular and Christian activities within a suitable local church room seems to have captured some people’s imagination: we must exploit that, in an effort to help people realise that ours is not just a village church; it is a villager’s church if they wish to access it.
Work on the chapel has now started, and in the near future we hope to provide updates on the physical progress of the building and how we hope to fund all the work necessary.
November 2003
The 1850 rotten floor has been taken out together with the old box pews. (Anyone want to bid for up to 100 feet of Vicorian pews? They are for sale.)
The roof of the side chapel, which had leaked at various times over the last 50 years, has finally been made sound.
July 2004
Work is scheduled to begin in September, to complete the transformation to a village room, to be ready before Christmas. It will have a new carpeted floor, kitchen facilities, new heating, a glass wall to separate it form the main church, and so on. Of course we will use it for church events/meetings, but it is deliberately being called a Village Room as it will be available for other activities
We're finishing the work before we have all the money we need, so if there are any benefactors out there willing to help by financing a few chairs or something then please get in touch.
