Anyone who has walked through the churchyard will have seen the scaffolding that was installed as an emergency measure to the East Chancel, part of which has remained in place since 2019. 

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The good news is that, after removing three large trees in 2020 that had sucked moisture out of the ground, the movements have stabilized and things are not getting appreciably worse. When it comes to the structural repair of historic buildings, unless there is an urgent need, it pays to wait and monitor rather than rush to a solution. That has been our approach in Baydon and while structural support like a buttress with steel piles will almost certainly be needed, we continue to work with Historic England to evaluate options and seek the most affordable solution that will maintain the character of the church. For this reason, our recent planning application didn’t include the structural repairs. Meanwhile the scaffolding will remain in place to keep the northern flint wall intact until we have an agreed structural solution. 

Local volunteers carried out emergency crack filling in 2020 using traditional materials. However, further sympathetic repairs will ultimately be needed to the flint walls that are bowed and cracked. The extent of these repairs can’t be determined until the structure has been stablilised and the remaining scaffolding removed. Once this has been completed and everything has settled down, the final and painstaking part of the repair programme will be to carefully restore the interior of the church, making good the internal cracking, replacing damaged stonework round the stained glass windows using traditional methods and decorating the interior.