About Us
About our church
2020 saw the fulfilling of the vision of Mr. Russell Smith, property steward for the Lakenheath Methodist Church, with a total refurbishment.
Russell had many ideas for improving the Church building and its community rooms. The building was in great need of new kitchen and toilets and needed heating and lighting upgrade too.
Russell had plans drawn up and presented them to the Church Council and were also presented to the congregation one Sunday morning. They were very innovative and excited us all at the prospect of bringing the building up to date.
He wanted very much to create a bright and comfortable Church, one that would encourage people to come in and stay a while.
The Christmas eve carol service demanded more space as many people began to support it. ‘Wouldn’t it be great to be able to incorporate the old school room to give us more space? And also, to provide an easier entrance for undertakers during funerals?’
The community rooms which are hired out to various groups were also in need of attention. They were tired looking and pretty cold. Lacking in storage space and with toilets that were also old and tired and even colder to be in. Insulation of the walls would help!
That notion didn’t need too much convincing of the church council. Every little detail was considered and once the designs were agreed by committees all we needed was the money to go ahead.
Several years went by and many prayers raised to God as to how we could do this. One Sunday Russell came into the vestry and said ‘I think you had better sit down before you read this’.
We had been left £200 thousand pound in bequest from Mr. Sydney Raven for the Lakenheath Methodist Church to use in maintaining the building. None of us could take it in at first. God had most definitely approved our plans and provided the funds to complete the works.
As most Church committees know, there are many hurdles to jump before reaching the starting point of such a project. Building regulations were acquired and subsequently approved by our District Circuit and County council. We were off.
Finding builders was not such an easy task as one might think. Some companies thought the job way too big, and some thought it too small. Recommendations came from several sources of a local company from Brandon, WRP.
Wojciech of WRP gave us his detailed breakdown and estimate for the work and the committee accepted his quote over more expensive ones.
Just as Wojciech was about to begin Coronavirus broke out and the country went into lockdown.
Fortunately for us it didn’t stop him from being able to work so, instead of doing one room at a time Wojciech did everything at once. Every room tackled together which was perfect as we were unable to meet for services due to lockdown.
No end of skips were filled with rotten floor boards and sandy earth to make way for a new concreted base for some beautiful oak flooring. Preparation is always what takes the time. The team at WRP are superb and they continued daily till a huge job was finished.
Now the Church sports new front and side entrances, Fabulous lighting in all rooms; New heating system; A wonderful sound system and screen projection for services without paper/books handling. Also, a brand new kitchen with serving hatches to both community rooms plus 2 more disabled loos.
The plans are still to add solar panels which will make us an even ‘greener’ church.
The deliveries of some of the building materials, due to problems caused by coronavirus and Brexit, slowed things down and added some costs, but we managed to cover all expenses due to yet another gifted bequest from a lady who used to live in Lakenheath Masie W. Morley.
God certainly has answered our prayers.
Now we are ready to hire out our community rooms and we can keep the hire fees low – £10 per hour – thanks to not having any loans involved with the work.
In 1835 the Methodist Church was built at the cost of £120 in 2020-2021 the refurbishment, with all the regulations and drawings and fire and alarm systems, cost over £200,000!
When entering the Church now and sitting in its comfortable chairs enjoying the sound system and viewing the stage and screen I feel completely wowed. It is beautiful and fulfills all our needs as a church and as a community facility.
