St. Andrew’s Church, Epworth
Rated Outstanding by HLF, awarded Beacon Site Status
The Maltings Partnership have done an outstanding job at St Andrew’s Church Epworth in the design of the graphics associated with the project Conserving and Sharing. Subsequently the interpretation facilities have been installed and well received by parishioners and many visitors. Throughout the project excellent communications have been maintained. The project committee were given the opportunity to comment at all stages of the design process.
MELVYN ROSE
(Chairman – Restoration Committee)
St. Andrew’s Church, Epworth, is notable for its Rector Samuel Wesley, who was father to the founder of methodism, John Wesley. Since 1999 a major restoration project has been underway to restore both the exterior and interior of the Church. The interpretive scope formed part of the Phase 5 restoration, and involved the development of welcome signs, a heritage centre, multimedia installation and films, a church and village trail, and community learning projects. Our own role was to develop the brand and visual language, design the welcome signs and the Heritage Centre, and also create two browsing books on a mobile lectern which interpret the interior features of the church.
Interpretation in a living church presents very particular challenges. The heritage centre was sited at the foot of the tower, underneath a new oak balcony. Although the requirement was for permanent but possibly update-able displays, the brief dictated that we may not fix to the walls, floor or ceiling due to listing issues and that the room would also be used for meetings so must be easily adaptable for that use. Further, very little archive material of suitable quality was available. Using sympathetic materials, innovative fixings, and developing illustration/image content from whatever archives were available to us, we managed to tell the notable stories of the church and meet the parameters of the brief. The mobile lectern was designed by ourselves to be stored in the heritage room during church services, and removed when the meeting room was required. The welcome sign utilised lightbox technology, illuminating the entrance to the church path at night and allowing the main graphic and an inset graphic to be inexpensively updated as required.
HLF rated the interpretation of St. Andrew’s as outstanding and awarded Beacon Status. Client teams who themselves have a church they wish to interpret now visit St. Andrew’s as an example of what can be achieved without compromising the central role as a place of worship. Since completing the implementation in 2014 we have designed a new external panel telling Samuel Wesley’s story, and will shortly be producing an information leaflet detailing the restoration of the Bells and the Organ.
