Our First Day at Holy Trinity Straw Build

We were all winners last Saturday when our vicar, Richard, completed his Greater Tulse Hill Straw Bale Marathon in a time of 5 hours 20 minutes. Among those who accompanied him were Tarron, aged 8, who ran a big 2k; Jaleel, the third fastest U13 100m sprinter in the country; Ally, who signed up for…

It was always our plan to build with load-bearing straw walls. Our design team at Straw Works still believe it would be possible, but our Engineer at Renaissance has said “No.” Apparently, the 10m span across the hall would be too wide to support the upper floor and roof.  Instead, Helen, our engineer has designed…

On Monday 2nd December Holy Trinity PCC agreed to expand our original plan to include a strip of Upper Rooms in the roof space of the hall.  This is now seen as an absolutely necessary step in order to get permission for building. Without the extra Upper Rooms, the hall will only partially meet our…

Following the visit of the Diocesan Advisory Committee (DAC) on 28 January, our straw bale project is moving full steam ahead! The DAC spent a morning with Richard, Barbara Jones from Straw Works, a representative from English Heritage and members of the project team. After inspecting the site and asking lots of questions, Stephen Craven…

Our first bid for funding has been successful. The Church of England’s Church and Community Fund has awarded us £15,000. We bid on the basis that the process of self-building will increase community cohesion and enhance the church’s mission. We need to spend the allocation within two years. Thank you CCF – we’re making a…

A key aspect of our project is that it is a community self-build. So it’s great, even at this early stage to have people involved, sharing skills and time. Thanks to Kevin, who spent an afternoon making a topographic survey, and his friend, who transferred the data into a usable format. Thanks to Heath, who…