St Silas Archive

The Building

St Silas (the building) was constructed in 1864. Four years later the organ was moved and in 1895 (31 years later) the hall was added. So from the beginning the congregation of St Silas have made a point of adapting the building to the needs of their day.

Sept 2006 from Front

Sept 2006 from back

Random photos of the building at the bottom of this page

New lighting in main sanctuary:

The current lights in church are 1000 hour, 300watt, E40 bulbs. These are fairly hard to get hold of now.

Of the 23 sockets in the church currently 6 have failed and it seems uneconomic to re-wire these.

Changing the bulbs is also a mini adventure in itself and you do need a head for heights to be able to get to them and juggle the old and new bulbs while you are at the top of the ladder.

So, we are looking at various options for a completly up to date lighting system for the building.

New hall:

Phase 4 of the 1999 Reordering outlined the possibility of demolishing the existing Hall and building a larger hall in its place and on the garden area fronting onto Park Road.

Significant stages:

Planning applied for: [date]
Planning approved by GCC [date]

May: Two "multipurpose rooms" were built in the back corners of the church. Prior to this the corner to the right (as you come in to the church) was a comfy seating, 'library area'. While on the other side was a small partition making a creche and baby changing area.

April: in preparation for the new rooms being built in the back corners of the church the Dais was moved back to its original position.

July: Yellow Room painted for use by Powerhouse 2 children's work.

May: New PA system installed

February: The Dais was moved forward one pillar space to create a useful space behind. This was used for small service, as a prayer ministry area and various other things.

February: The glassed screen at the back (entrance) of the church was boarded over and made into a notice board.

The Purple Room:
Around Easter 2000 the Youth Fellowship at the time was given what had previously been the kitchen to use on Sunday evenings along with Powerhouse 4 in the mornings. Furniture was scavenged and bought, paint colours were chosen and some DIY done.

MAJOR REORDERING PLANS (2)

Four Phases of building work:

adding a kitchen
new rooms and entrance way
sorting out the sanctuary..
re carpeting, lighting, prayer areas, etc.
building a new hall

The pews were removed and replaced with chairs.

This also meant that flooring was required, so the wooden floor and tiled isles were covered with carpet tiles.

Not long after this the first Ceilidh was held in the main church to take advantage of the vast space created by the lack of pews. It soon got dangerous as carpet tiles came flying up during the faster dances. After than blocks of tiles were glued down to stop this.

Another 'reordering' phase began with the cleaning of the external stone work.

MAJOR REORDERING PLANS (1)

I can't remember now exactly where or when I saved these three drawings of reordering plans from the bin. I've had them for a few years anyway but have finally got them online.

These are from 1977 (before my time in St Silas) so I don't know much about how far these plans went, or what got in the way. The drawings were mounted on board and have some damp and other damage, but you can still see what is going on. The most radical thing is that the church is turned through 90 degrees!

Church Hall was erected at a cost of £570.

The Organ, which at first stood close to the chancel (current location of the kitchen), was moved to the gallery.

St Silas Church was opened for Divine Worship on the morning of 20th November, 1864 by the Rev. Canon Savage, Vicar of Nuneaton and an Honorary Canon of Worcester. The first incumbent was the Rev. Walter T Turnpin of Dublin

Random Photos of the Building...