Bucks church draws on neighbour’s experience in choosing lighting contractor

St Mary Magdalene Church at Great Hampden in Buckinghamshire dates back more than 800 years and sits alongside the Manor House of the Hampden family, mentioned in the Domesday Book. The church has undergone many major and minor changes over the years: the chancel was rebuilt in the 15th century and contains many fine Hampden family monuments. It is believed and quite probable that John Hampden the Patriot, cousin of Oliver Cromwell, is buried in the chancel.

Like many ancient buildings, the church has suffered from outdated lighting, heating and audio systems, which all detract from the congregation’s and visitors’ experience when attending regular services and concerts. To combat that and to align with the 800th anniversary of the church, the PCC embarked on a major fundraising programme to fund a full reordering of the church, with a view to securing its use in the future.

The generosity of the congregation and parishioners was gratefully received through pledges, donations and raffle ticket purchases and many other ways to support the fund.

The church owes a debt of thanks to Glyn Hassall, who spent countless hours co-ordinating and making grant applications which raised over £100,000 towards the project, with a substantial portion coming from the National Lottery Heritage Fund.

The choice of contractor for the installation of the new electrical services was greatly influenced by the experience its sister church, Holy Trinity in Prestwood, where Anthony J Smith (Gloucester) Ltd was part of a successful major reordering team. Discussions with them started in 2018 and their patience and experience with similar projects was very much appreciated by the team at the church.

Following many visits and demonstrations of carefully selected LED light fittings, a full specification was delivered for faculty approval following input from the PCC.After a few hurdles were successfully navigated the congregation moved out of the church and were hospitably welcomed to worship at nearby Hill House. The church was closed on New Year’s Day 2024 and the builders moved in to start work on levelling and stabilising the floor within the nave and side aisles.

The team from Anthony J Smith (Gloucester) Ltd followed shortly after to help install the underfloor containment system and start the wiring of new lighting and power circuits throughout the church.

A completely new LED lighting system was installed using light fittings of various power outputs and focal widths, to provide maximum enhancement of the liturgy. It is controlled through the use of a fully dimmable scene-setting system, which allows the church to easily alter the scenes and achievable levels of light to suit many types of services, alongside various concerts and performances that can take place within the church.

New individual spotlights have been installed for much of the liturgical furniture and many of the monuments on the walls of the church, together with the nave hatchments; and when combined with the up-lighting of the nave and chancel ceilings offer new dramatic and atmospheric illumination possibilities.

The electric heating system has been extended with new low-glare ceramic element heaters installed, together with fan-assisted panel heaters in selected locations to provide easy-to-control heat as and when required.

The first phase of reordering works took place over a period of five months and the church was opened ready for the summer, while further fundraising took place to enable much-needed plasterwork repairs and then redecoration.

The church closed again last October to allow the final restoration works to be completed, and the congregation was welcomed back in time to celebrate the Christmas festivities.

Che Polley from Anthony J Smith (Gloucester) Ltd commented: “We always feel very fortunate to be involved with this type of project and help the PCC and congregation realise their vision for the future of their church. The transformation through 2024 has been a long time coming and it’s great to see all the pieces come together and produce such a great combination of modern technologies that works comfortably in such a valuable historic church like St Mary’s.

“Following the completion of the works we were invited to the celebratory Evensong service and meet with parishioners during the reception afterwards. I would like to thank Reverend Deiniol Heywood for once again trusting us with this project and also Tony Blackburn for his drive and ambition in pulling the project together, given the testing circumstances over the last few years.”

The Reverend Deiniol Heywood added: “Our vision was that we wanted to be a welcoming church for the 21st century, offering a place for people to encounter God in their lives. Whilst retaining the character of our historic building with some simple changes, we have created an exciting space for worship, pilgrimage, music and the arts.“Immeasurable thanks are due to Tony Blackburn, who has steered the project from its inception until now, and it is impossible to quantify how much Tony has contributed to the success of this project.

“We were also very fortunate to work with excellent professionals such as the team from Anthony J Smith (Gloucester) Ltd, whose dedication and respect for our project and church can be seen in the quality of their work.”

• For further information visit www.anthonyjsmith.co.uk.