St Barnabas’, Pound Hill, built in 1955 consists of a hall, church and pastoral centre 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.
In normal times, 600 people a week use the spaces for support groups, Weightwatchers, Indian Dance, youth theatre groups, Brownies, children’s musical activities, cake shop, exercise for the elderly, pilates, church groups and to provide hot homemade lunches for the elderly and free lunches for those experiencing homelessness. 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 means lifting/lowering areas of flooring to allow level access through the building as well as rebuilding the entrance, to have a disability-compliant door with an automatic opening/closing mechanism. A refurbished kitchen area completes the project, and we also wish to take the opportunity to form a staircase from the upstairs vestry to the basement – present access for which is a small, hazardous ‘coal hole’ style opening.
The cost of the project is £228,000 and we are grateful to have received grants so far from the Coop, (£6300), Asda (£300), AllChurch Trust (£3000), Rank Foundation (£4000), the Big Lottery Fund (2 grants of £10,000), Sussex Community Foundation (£5,000), and the Gatwick Airport Community Foundation (£2,500), the Beatrice Laing Family Foundation (£2,500) and The Garfield Weston Foundation (£10,000), the Longley Trust (£500), The Bernard Sunley Foundation (£5000), as well a legacy and other donations.
The work is divided into phases with Phase 1 – the Pastoral Centre being carried out by DMC Building Services Ltd of Copthorne. This phase covers
- 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 is already looking much more spacious, open and usable with the completion of the first phase mid- May 2021.
If you would like to donate towards the remaining phases of this project, our bank details are: Parish of Worth Poundhill & Maidenbower, Sort Code: 40-18-22 Account Number: 61223372. Please use the reference: “St B project” for your donation. Many thanks.
The plans are shown below.
Worth Parish 