Landmark spire in place
By Kathie Griffiths T & A 23.11.2007
The spire is craned into place
A pioneering project to build a community brick by brick has taken delivery of its landmark.
A lorry arrived at the site of the Cottingley Cornerstone Project yesterday loaded with a 40ft church spire on its back.
It took a mammoth effort on the ground and a monster-sized crane to hoist the five-ton spire into place on top of what will be the new St Michael's and All Angels Church.
As the spire was fixed into position and topped with a cross, it was met with cheers and applause by onlookers.
"This really is the icing on the cake for us. We've been waiting to see the spire go up, it makes an impressive statement," said congregation member Andrew Clarke.
It was also a relief for Chris Spivey, who was one of the team at Laisterdyke-based Microfabrications who spent nine days building the fibreglass spire.
"It's just great to see it up there. It's a massive relief and a weight off of our minds," he said.
It was also cause for celebration for the Cornerstone Community Centre's new manager Zoe Marston, who took up the role on Monday. She said: "It's so exciting. The spire going on says it all. It says the project's here and we're proud of it."
Although wintry weather has been hampering progress, the scheme is only a few weeks behind schedule and building should be finished by the summer.
"June 2008 is the date we're sticking to. It's all going well although we still need more funds and are working on that," Zoe said.
The project has a budget of £9 million. The community complex will cost about £4.5m and still needs another £500,000.
"Fundraising is on-going, we've got lots of ideas and there's an outstanding lottery bid we're waiting to hear about," she said.
The project has had royal approval from Prince Charles who was so impressed when he visited the site in 2002 he made a donation from his personal charity.
Zoe said: "We'll be e-mailing photos of the spire straight to him. We keep all our backers up to date with progress."
As well as a church the project will also include 55 homes and a community complex which will include a function hall, an IT suite, GP surgery, pre-school nursery, elderly daycare, youth rooms, respite care for young disabled people, an arts and crafts room and meeting spaces.
Report in T & A 18.11.2006 re Cottingley Hall.
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T & A 2/11/2006
Excerpt from St. Michael's November 2006 magazine
Cornerstone Centre
An exciting step forward
All has been quiet on the Littlelands site over the summer months but things are now in full swing again.
Mid-October saw the signing of all the legal documents for the Scheme. If they had been piled one on top of one
another, they would have been over four feet high ! The vicar ended up signing her name over three hundred times.
As you can imagine, a lot of time and effort went into co-ordinating everything. It was like a military operation.
It all means that the builder, J S Bramleys, has total control of the site and will be building full-time for the next 18
to 20 months. We are praying for a mild winter, so that nothing can slow the progress towards the completion of the Centre
in early Summer, 2008. As yet, we don't have a definite date for when the new St. Michael's will be opened. This should
become clearer in the next few months.
All told, this is the beginning of the end after over four years' work. The concrete, bricks and mortar will start to
take shape into the Cornerstone Centre. We still need funds. We have applied to the Big Lottery for £500,000. But please keep fund raising
in any way you can: every penny counts.
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