2023 Large Church Projects – Rochdale RC Church and Bury

A great year for really interesting and challenging Church projects.

St John The Baptist RC Church Rochdale has over 300m2 of fine Venetian glass, un-glazed ceramic and a variety of other natural materials decorating the Chancel rising up into the vaulted dome above. Originally designed by Eric Newton and fabricated by Ludwig Oppenheimer, this mosaic is definitely worth a visit.

Over the years as a result of moisture ingress from the failed dome ceiling and structural movement, sympathetic cleaning and reinstatement works were required taking over 4 months to execute.

During the project, the very well organised Church team managed to arrange 3 separate visits to local interested parties as well as numerous presentations and talks.

The Church of St Mary the Virgin, Bury.

Having worked almost 20 years ago in Bury at the Fusiliers Museum, we were familiar with this beautiful Church, with its fine original geometric and extremely precise tessellated un-glazed ceramic throughout the building. Although generally sound, a large area of mosaic in the Nave had become at risk as a result of high foot traffic and poor recent intervention. We were asked to carry out a condition survey and later instructed to carry out a thorough clean, removal / reinstatement of the large vulnerable section as well as numerous in-situ repairs using our stocks of salvaged geometric and unglazed ceramic tesserae.

The Church remained open during out works and the project was made even more enjoyable with the many visits from the congregation and other visitors to see what we were up to…