Day 140 - Staining the Roof Trusses

Week 29 - Day 140
Having finished the messy work applying lime plaster to the ceiling laths attention has now turned to the roof trusses.
Before work started the trusses had been boxed in by lath and plaster and painted white to match the walls and ceiling. The pews are going to be painted an pale white/cream tones, so it has been decided to  leave the trusses as bare wood but with a cleaned up surface.
The cleaning has removed a white coating which indicated where the original ceiling had been constructed.

Here the uncleaned roof trusses of George Street Chapel show the bare wood which would have
been within the attic space. The white paint would have been visible below the original ceiling.

The George Street Chapel  roof trusses were covered with lath and plaster
and painted white when the original ceiling was removed and the roof lights inserted.
This how the roof trusses were found when the conservation repairs started.  

Day 139 - Plastering around Skylights -2

Week 29 - Day 139
Having completed the laths, the plastering actually started to day.

Day 138 - Plastering Around Skylights

Week 29 - Day 138
The final works around the ceiling is the complete the plastering.

Day 137 - Fitting New Door Frames

Week 29 - Day 137
New door frames added to the new door openings to the new toilets.
For everyones convenience.

Day 136 - New Window Painted

Week 28 - Day 136
One of the large chapel windows was too rotten to be saved. These are all replacement windows inserted in the 1990's by the last owner. sadly the original ones with the hopper window openings were not saved, and not reproduced either. A complete re-make of all the windows to the original design was sadly too expensive an option, so the windows have been cleaned, repaired and repainted but one was too poorly preserved and a new one has been made.

New window replacing one of the ones removed. 

Replaced windows in the basement having been cleaned and renovated. 

Day 135 - Plastering Works Start in the Old Vestry / New Kitchen

Week 28 - Day 135
The former vestry spaces have started to be converted into their new uses as kitchen and washing -up areas.

Day 134 - Other Cellars in George Street

Week 28 - Day 134
Spent this afternoon looking at the cellars of the buildings up the hill, north, of the chapel.
Aa with the chapel almost no original features remain, no fireplaces or plaster and many have lost their appearance of being a room because the floors of the shops above have been lowered so that they are now flush with the pavement of George Street.
One of the premises has retained some fitments which we hope to replicate in the chapel cellar, though not the nice stone steps. To the side of the, now empty fireplace, is a built in cupboard with four doors and a stone sink on the other side of the fireplace. A board partition is still in place between the window and the access door from Jackson Pit. As with the cellar dwellings at the chapel the access from Jackson Pit is at street level, not a true cellar, though th e windows on the George Street elevation are below the level of the street.

Stone steps down to the basement.

Green paint to the built in cupboard door.

The back of the cupboard is un-plastered brickwork. 

A board partition between the window (now bricked up) and the door
to Jackson Pit.

Day 133 - Another Layer of Plaster

Week 23 - Day 133
The lime plaster needs to be built up in layers and allowed to dry between layers. So everything depends on the weather for timing.

The second layer of lime plaster in the lowered part of the ceiling.
This is over the pipe organ at the south end of the chapel.

Day 132 - New Staircase Starts to be Erected

Week 28 - Day 132
Today the new staircase started to be fitted together providing a link between the basement and the chapel.

Day 131 - Delivery of New Staircase

Week 27 - Day 131
The parts for the new staircase arrived today.

Day 130 - New Staircase

Week 27 - Day 130
This is where the new staircase will be fitted tomorrow. To allow access between the basement and the main chapel floor.

Day 129 - Roof Lights and Basement Windows

Week 27 - Day 129
Work is moving towards reinstating the windows. The frameworks around the roof lights is nearing completion and the windows to the basement are starting to be replaced.

Frames around the roof lights being completed.

Refurbished windows start to go back into the basement.

Day 128 - More Scaffolding Removed

Week 27 - Day 128
The upper levels of scaffolding were dismantled today. The roof and gutters can now be seen easily from the street.

Day 127 - Fitting of New Stone Sills

Week 27 - Day 127
New stones replace old sills for some of the windows.

A View from the Roof of George Street Chapel - the video

Day 126 - A View From the Roof

Week 26 - Day 126
Oldham from the roof of George Street Chapel.

Looking north up George Street to the modern Spindles Shopping Centre.

Age UK Oldham charity shop 'Vintage 55'
on the opposite side of George Street

Lees Heginbotham's shop replaced the chapel's Sunday School on the
corner of Silver Street and George Street.

Roofs south of David Street and Jackson Pit.

Looking south down Jackson Pit.

Looking west across Jackson Pit.

Age UK Oldham's More Mobile shop opposite the rear of the chapel
on the west side of Jackson Pit - from the roof of the George Street Chapel. 

View of George Street Chapel from the top floor of Spindles Multi-Story
Car Park, looking west over George Street.

Day 125 - Fixing the Chimney Pots

Week 26 - Day 125
New chimney pots fixed in place today to complete works to the roof.

Fixing new chimney pots in place at George Street Chapel, Oldham.

Day 124 - Stacks of Plasterboard

Week 26 - Day 124
Delivery today of stacks of plasterboard to make the internal partitions on the chapel floor, closing off the staircase to the basement below and creating a small storage area, and lining out the dry-lining of the outer walls in the basement.
The walls wont stay pink, but you will all know they are pink on the inside.

Day 123 - Protective Canopy Removed

Week 26 - Day 123
With the roofing and gutter works now completed the protective canopy can now be removed from over George Street Chapel. The chimney pots can now be put in place as the final piece of work to the roof, after which the upper scaffolding levels will be removed as well.

The protective canopy is removed from over George Street Chapel, Oldham.

Day 122 - Last of the Floor Slabs Lain in Basement

Week 25 - Day 122
The last few stone floor slabs were relaid to day in the basement.

Day 121 - Soundproofing the Basement

Week 25 - Day 121
The floor of the chapel has now been strengthened by inserting an additional board underneath the thin floor boarding, and now a thick insulation fibre has been put in place. This will reduce noise transfer between the chapel and the basement.
We have a note in the chapel files which records that the noise of a harmonium being played in the chapel was an nuisance for residents of the cellar dwellings. Things must have got a lot worse when the organ was purchased!