Light, Space, and the Return of Grace
By Barry Richardson
This week’s visit to St Mary’s felt very different. It was not just a progress review (a.k.a. a nosey wander) but something more intimate - a reunion with an old and dearly loved friend.
There seemed a quiet dignity in the air as I entered, as if the building itself were beginning to stretch and breathe again. The long, careful ‘surgery’ remains in progress, but the patient is sitting up, smiling, and beginning to show signs of its former self and some new clothes too.
Light Returns: Clerestory and East Windows
On entering the chancel I was struck by the presence of light and space.
Light flooded everywhere, and the repaired and cleaned clerestory windows (19th Century) high above the choir, so recently dulled by age and grime, now gleam with clarity, shining with a golden sheen. No electric lights were on - this was the crisp and bright light of the sun and probably much as the original 15th Century Architect intended all of those years ago.
The East Window also caught the sun, casting a kaleidoscope of colour into St Mary’s and painting the stones on the North wall. This was a true Re-Awakening moment for me, and I stood for a couple of minutes, captivated by this very unfamiliar light.
Café Area: From Blueprint to Reality
Walking down the central aisle of the nave (more later) the transformation of the café space is unmistakable. Floor tiling (work in progress just 14 days earlier) fragmented and less expansive and once part-protected beneath layers of sheeting and (necessary) construction clutter has been beautifully restored, revealing a surface that joins the past to the present and to the future.
The kitchen and toilet block which for months resembled a skeletal ghost of the final drawings, now stands with a kind of architectural confidence where the font once stood.
It struck me that the spatial memory of the church plays tricks on the eye - this whole cafe area, generous and spacious, now appears beautifully defined as if it was always so - living testament to the Re-Awakening surely and ample demonstration of the care and respect offered this building by everyone who is working on this site.
That font now stands just behind the photograph I took, a reminder of how spaces evolve, yet retain their sacred dignity.
Magnus Room: A Hive of Activity
The Magnus Room continues to emerge from where the café once stood in the opposite aisle, a focal point of activity, with constructors pouring energy into its birth.
The room seems to now highlight and enrich the sleek mediaeval pillars in the nave. I reminded myself that the bright work lights and church internal lighting is all now fed from St Mary’s own solar installation - another Re-Awakening achievement.
Western Scaffolding: Fragile Threads of Renewal
Returning to the western side of the church, yet more delicate webs of scaffolding have appeared. It sits confidently (as scaffolding must) allowing roof inspections and plaster repairs to continue.
The Nave Central Aisle - a refreshed view
The central aisle of the nave, once narrowed by the necessities of construction material storage, now feels wide and inviting again as materials consumed free the space.
The eye now draws naturally up to the newly extended Crossing, feeling both different and yet reassuringly the same in equal measure.
Summary
Each time I have visited St Mary’s during recent months, I say that it ‘feels more like a church than it did the last time’. This visit felt like a tipping point has passed, as the Church literally Re-Awakens with a receding construction footprint, new spaces emerging from work done, and new additions sitting comfortably in their ancient and venerable home.
Considerable light and space allows the sharp definition of the Medieval Church to re-assert itself, showcasing even more than before the substantial size and splendour that architects yearn to create.
On my way home, I stopped to look back from the top of Beacon Hill to see the magnificent spire of St Mary’s standing guard over Newark set out below it, and I felt a deep sense of optimism having seen again just how far the Re-Awakening Project has come - no longer conceptual and debated nor committed solely to architectural drawings and reports - but a visible, living and masterful statement of future intent and energy.
St Mary’s is coming back to life, truly a Re-Awakening.
Next Week…
…I will continue my rummage around the history of St Mary’s, to probe the legacy of past times, just as today’s Re-Awakening seeks to create its own legacy.