Our New Roof

Within 10 years of our new building being erected, we were regularly having problems with our original flat roof. Despite having it resurfaced, age and the ease of access for vandals meant that we were regularly 'up on the roof' trying to sort out leaks or worse. At one time, we came into the building to find that vandals had ripped up the roof right into the Junior Church room.

In 1997 we decided that we needed a completely new roof. Having looked at a number of ideas from our architect, we decided that we wanted to make the church building one we could be proud of, and one that would enhance the local area, rather than being an embarrassment. With an expected cost of over £50,000 for a new roof, replacement windows and improved heating in the sanctuary we knew that we would have a massive task in fundraising. Bear in mind that only 6 out of the congregation were in employment, and that our annual income at that time was less than £8000, and you can appreciate the scale of the task we accepted.

Architect's first sketch

Our Architect was superb, and we were fortunate that our Methodist Minister had just moved from Liverpool where he had been involved in major works on two churches there.   Between them, we identified trusts and church funds that we could approach for grants.

Asking for money was difficult at first, but we soon realised that many people were more than willing to help. As far as the circuit was concerned, we were amazed at the reaction of so many people. We had always considered ourselves as 'poor little Murdishaw, always struggling', but we soon learned that we were really the cutting edge of the whole Methodist Circuit in Runcorn, working in the toughest area of all. When we realised that we had all that good will and energy behind us, we knew we couldn't fail.

In 1998, we replaced the windows throughout the church with new frames and toughened glass throughout (not tough enough it soon appeared, but we're working on that).

In September 1999 the builders arrived to begin the roof work. Once again we had problems with theft when 15 of the steel roofing panels were stolen, but by Christmas we had our first entirely rainproof roof for over 8 years.

Having a new roof is only a start. Before we began this project we asked ourselves why we should do this. We came up with a vision, summarised in the set of slides you can see here

Thanks to

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