On With The Hard Hats!

A little while ago, some of the more intrepid members of the congregation climbed the 20ft ladder in the company of the architect to see progress on the south side of the roof. The process so far is to strip off the old lead and then melt it down, roll it out flat (by pouring the molten lead onto a bed of sand so that it is completely flat and smooth) and the re-applying it to the roof. Simples! Just factor in the weight of the lead (17lbs per square foot or 71Kgs per roll) which has to be hauled up by a hoist and there you are.

The purpose of the lead is to weather-proof the finished roof, so each sheet has to be overlapped by 3ft. This has been happening to church roofs across the country since the earliest church building and hasnt changed much in all that time; indeed the Romans perfected the method of making water pipes out of lead (another of the amazing things the Romans did for us!). But why lead? It's extremely soft and easy to work into any shapes required and has a very low melting point so doesnt require the costly processes that other metals do. It is extremely resistant to corrosion (though the acid in bird droppings can cause damage (pesky pigeons), and most importantly, is non-combustable. The pictures show some of the rolls of lead and the leadworkers tooks. For more information on the history of lead on church roof follow this link: https://www.buildingconservation.com/articles/churchleadwork/churchleadwork.htm. So here's to the amazing skill and patience of the lead-workers who are up there on our roof doing their thing. Canon Matthew has organised a special piece of lead that can be signed so that you can have your support for the work encapsulated for the next 100 or so years. If you would like to do that, then contact details are on the website.