The new Heritage Fund sign is up on the scaffolding, featuring their new logo since rebranding from the Heritage Lottery Fund to the National Lottery Heritage Fund.
A site meeting yesterday provided a good update and chance to see how things are progressing. Measurements are being taken on the East window for the glass company, Lightfoots. Some problems with roof timbers have been discovered, which are repairable but have delayed the completion date by a week – now the start of November.
View from inside onto the A6 – work on the steps continues behind the black plastic Restoration to the wall where the accessible lift will go
Work on the front steps is well under way, along with preparations for the accessible lift which will be installed at the side of the steps. A crane was needed to lift the heavy stone steps out of situ, which, after mistakenly arriving at Christ Church, quickly found Wycliffe, and then caused much consternation to motorists as another lane on the A6 had to be closed to carry out the work – at least this was at 5am to minimise disruption!
Section of green and red pattern peeling away from the wall Location of patterned piece within wall
During the site visit yesterday, we were delighted to spot original wall paint/wallpaper which will be investigated further. Inspection was from a distance though as the paint likely contains arsenic! The picture on the right shows the location of the pattern within what was a stonework design on the wall – you can just make out the lines etched into the plaster.
Another discovery came from the folks at Maysand who were clearing a blocked drain, only to find the culprit of the blockage was this piece of leaded coloured glass! It will be cleaned up, and we’ll try to identify which window it came from.
Update to research
Work at Stockport Library is now complete, and being compiled. It ended with the discovery of a fabulous long article in the ‘Stockport Mercury’ newspaper detailing the opening in 1850.
Next on the list is a trip to Lancashire Archives in Preston, which has two references to material on Wycliff (without the ‘e’) from 1851-2. This is all on microfilm and may take all day or a hour to go through! Hopefully there will be something useful and previously unknown.
Heaton Norris Fun Day
We will be having a stall at the Heaton Norris Recreation Park Fun Day on August 17th 12-4pm. Come along and say hello or lend a hand! Help would be appreciated on the day to put up/take down a gazebo, and provide short comfort breaks for the stall volunteers, if you could spare an hour or so please. Donation of any items we could sell on the stall to raise funds would also be very welcome.
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