St. Andrew's Church, Epworth
Rated Outstanding by NLHF, awarded Beacon Site status
The Maltings Partnership have done an outstanding job at St Andrew's Church Epworth in the design of the graphics associated with the project Conserving and Sharing. Subsequently the interpretation facilities have been installed and well received by parishioners and many visitors. Throughout the project excellent communications have been maintained. The project committee were given the opportunity to comment at all stages of the design process.
Melvyn Rose
(Chairman - Restoration Committee)
St. Andrew's Church, Epworth, is notable for its Rector Samuel Wesley, who was father to the founder of methodism, John Wesley. Since 1999 a major restoration project has been underway to restore both the exterior and interior of the Church. The interpretive scope formed part of the 'Phase 5 restoration', and involved the development of welcome signs, a heritage centre, multimedia installation and films, a church and village trail, and community learning projects. Our own role was to develop the brand and visual language, design the welcome signs and the heritage centre, and also create two browsing books on a mobile lectern which interpret the interior features of the church.
Interpretation in a living church presents very particular challenges. The heritage centre was sited at the foot of the tower, underneath a new oak balcony. Although the requirement was for permanent but possibly update-able displays, the brief dictated that we may not fix to the walls, floor or ceiling due to listing issues, and that the room would also be used for meetings so must be readily adaptable for that use. Further, there was very little archive material of suitable quality. Using sympathetic materials, innovative fixings, and developing illustration/image content from whatever resources were available to us, we managed to tell the notable stories of the church and meet the parameters of the brief. The mobile lectern was designed by ourselves to be stored in the heritage room during church services, and removed when the meeting room was required.
Externally, the welcome sign utilised light box technology, illuminating the entrance to the church path at night and allowing the main graphic, and an inset graphic, to be inexpensively updated as required. We also designed a new external panel telling Samuel Wesley's story, and produced a publication detailing the restoration of the Bells and the Organ.
The National Lottery Heritage Fund rated the interpretation of St. Andrew's as ‘outstanding’ and awarded Beacon Status. Client teams who themselves have a church they wish to interpret now visit St. Andrew's as an example of what may be achieved without compromising the central role as a place of worship.
Maltings are members of the following professional organisations: Association for Heritage Interpretation, Group for Education in Museums, and Association of Illustrators.
