Witchford: St Andrew’s Church nave gets tile makeover

High heels were once the very height of fashion, especially when getting married.

In St Andrew’s Church Witchford one day, a bride walked up the aisle on her father’s arm, only to get her heel caught.

It was stuck in the grid that had been placed above the coke in the nave that used to heat the church in Victorian times.  

It was decided that something had to be done to make the grid area safe, so the church warden at the time, Claude Allen, had the task of arranging for his building firm to fill the gap with cement.

Rev Canon Mark Haworth cutting the ribbon (Image: Rosemary Westwell)

Efforts were even made to colour the cement to fit in with the general nave colouring. However, the cement had turned pink.

His wife, Dorothy commissioned a red carpet to cover the offending strip of pink cement.

However, Covid arrived, and all soft furnishings had the be removed.

The carpet by then was particularly gungy underneath, so it had to go, revealing the pink cement for all to see. 

Stephani Norris (pictured) was the architect who oversaw the project (Image: Rosemary Westwell)

Dorothy Allen died and left some money for the church warden to choose what to do with it.

It was decided to use it towards replacing the pink cement and make the nave good with proper hand-made tiles.  

This work was recently completed by Hibbitt and Sons, and a small celebration was held after the church service on Sunday to thank the Allen family.

The priest-in-charge, Rev Canon Mark Haworth read a suitable homily and cut the ribbon.