St Barnabas’, Pound Hill, built in 1955 consists of a church, hall and community café in daily use. Our exciting building project is about improving our facilities, in particular the accessibility into and through our buildings to enable more people to use them.  We have a prime position, at the heart of the community but this advantage is offset by our poor accessibility around the complex. The fashionable multi-level design of previous decades segregates users into those who can move easily between different floor levels and those who cannot.

The cost of the overall project was  budgeted £265,500 and we are grateful that we received donations and grants to enable us complete Phase 1 and Phase 2.

We are now in Phase 3, the final phase of this ambitious project which covers the building of the new principal entrance to the church, providing level outside access, and improving the patio area to make it more usable for outdoor events.

If you would like to donate towards the final phase of this project please use one of the methods below:

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Via Bank

Our bank details are: Parish of Worth, Pound Hill & Maidenbower, Sort Code: 40-18-22 Account Number: 61223372. Please use the reference: “St B project” for your donation,

Givealittle 

Use the Givealittle link: https://givealittle.co/campaigns/6cf91868-3cce-4edc-a4b0-abd4677c8318

Background to the project

In normal times, over 800 people a week use our spaces for among other things, support groups, children’s groups, musical activities, dance and exercise classes, youth theatre, Brownies and hot homemade lunches. Increasing accessibility into and throughout our buildings will enable more people to come and enjoy them for community activities or to worship here.

At St Barnabas’, this has meant lifting/lowering areas of flooring to allow level access through the building, as well as providing wheelchair and pram friendly access to all the buildings. The new primary entrance created to the church will have a disability-compliant door with an automatic opening/closing mechanism.

This future-proofs the Church as a place of worship and community activity space, accessible and useable by as wide a range of potential users as possible. The proposal seeks to provide parity of esteem for everyone using the Church buildings by allowing a single shared entrance for all, accessibility through the building where level changes currently prevent this. The new external porch is intended to make the Church entrance more visible to users and more inviting to visitors. It is intended that the works proposed to St Barnabas’ will allow the Church to continue to act as a community hub for the local area as well as supporting its growing congregation.

The work is divided into 3 phases and Phase 1 was carried out by DMC Building Services Ltd of Copthorne.  Completed was:

• External work outside the Pastoral Centre  – levelling the entrance and providing a smooth pathway from the pavement around to the patio area in front of the church and
• Internal work in the Pastoral Centre  – levelling the floor, installing a new kitchen, new heating and lighting.

The area already looked much more spacious, open and usable with the completion of the first phase mid- August 2021.

Phase 2, started at the end of August 2023, covering the lowering of the Narthex floor and widening the doorway into the Church Hall and provided level access within the buildings.

Phase 3, in progress, covers the building of the new principal entrance to the church, providing level outside access and improving the patio area making it more usable for outdoor events: