Statement of Need

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The Abbey Church Council (Parochial Church Council) seeks to ensure that the Abbey buildings are fit for purpose for
Christian mission throughout the 21st century and, in particular, in support of the Abbey’s vision statement:
People and Place Fully Alive
Worship Hospitality Engagement
The Abbey itself has a failing floor and inadequate and environmentally costly heating. The limitations of the 19th
century re-ordering, together with wear and tear since then, means that it can no longer meet the needs of the city.
The ancillary spaces in Kingston Buildings and vaults are inadequate. The Abbey is handicapped by the absence of
toilets for congregations or audiences, limited catering facilities, unsafe education and rehearsal spaces, and other
facilities required to support one of the busiest churches in the United Kingdom.
For eight years, the Abbey Footprint project has sought to identify the needs of the church and wider community
and to conduct extensive assessment and feasibility of the current buildings and available spaces.
To halt the deterioration in heritage and enhance the Abbey’s service to the city and region, the Footprint project
aims to:
• stabilise, repair and refurbish the Abbey floor
• use heat from the out-flow of the Roman Baths for a new heating system
• provide flexible seating for the nave
• reduce the impact on the fabric of large numbers of visitors and events
• provide the necessary support spaces and ancillary services required by Bath’s most significant
building and venue
• improve the interpretation of the nationally significant heritage
Outline Planning Permission has been given for the majority of the external works and the Abbey is making an
application for an over-arching faculty to guide the interior Abbey works.
The estimated cost of Footprint currently stands at £19.5 million. The Abbey has already invested
£2 million in Footprint from its own resources and gifts from benefactors. In May 2014 the Heritage Lottery Fund
awarded a Round 1 development grant of £389,000 in support of a further £10 million if the anticipated Round 2
pass is achieved in 2015.
This document details the fabric needs of the Abbey in support of the Abbey’s vision statement and indicates the
preferred solutions to the major problems.
2
3
INDEX
PEOPLE AND PLACE FULLY ALIVE
BASIC FACTS, GENERAL INFORMATIONAND RECENT EVENTS
THE NEEDS
a) Crossing and dais
b) Font and baptistery
c) Sanctuary and altar
d) Floor
e) Chapels (Gethsemane, Birde chantry, Alphege)
f) Corporation stalls
g) Choir stalls
h) The nave
i) North and south aisles
j) South and north transepts
k) Sacristy
l) The Montagu tomb
m) Heating, ventilation and insulation
n) Lighting
o) Acoustics
p) Entrances
q) Jackson extension
r) Retail
s) Clergy vestry
t) Visitor management/enlarging capacity
u) Interpretation
v) Interpretation centre and education spaces
w) Collections
x) Performance
y) Choir rooms and associated facilities
z) Refectory
aa) Kitchens and catering
bb) Meeting rooms
cc) Offices
dd) Volunteers
ee) Children and young people
ff) Toilets, cloakrooms and baby changing facilities
gg) Storage
hh) Workshop
ii) Boiler room
jj) Disabled access
WHAT IS THE EVIDENCE FOR THE NEED?
HOW IS THE PROPOSAL CONTRIBUTING TO THE NEED FOR SUSTAINABILITY?
WHAT OTHER OPTIONS TO MEET THE NEED WERE CONSIDERED?
THE NEED TO CONSIDER SEATING ARRANGEMENTS IN THE NAVE
AFTERWORD
4
6
9
12
12
12
12
13
14
14
14
14
15
15
15
15
16
16
17
17
17
18
18
18
20
21
21
22
22
23
23
24
24
24
25
26
27
27
27
28
31
32
36
43
PEOPLE AND PLACE FULLY ALIVE
Bath Abbey is a church. Its buildings and fabric have always been determined by a vision for Christian mission in
contemporary culture. The 21st century is no different and the Parochial Church Council requires that the Abbey
buildings should be as effective as it has been in the past in supporting ministry now and in the years to come.
The Statement of Need below springs from the Abbey’s mission statement, which is:
People and Place Fully Alive
Worship Hospitality Engagement
Worship – our response to God’s gift of life and love – is what we do at the Abbey. The days begin and end with
morning and evening prayer to which all are welcome. Prayer punctuates the day with services, prayer led by
chaplains and the continuous prayer of visitors. Significant financial resource and staff and volunteer time are
focused on worship.
Hospitality has been central to the Abbey’s ministry from our Benedictine foundation onwards. To use a modern
metaphor, hospitality is in our DNA. It will be most apparent in a planned refectory that will render the Abbey more
fully alive, more able to operate as a social enterprise serving locally sourced food and providing employment and
training, particularly for people on the margins of society. The welcome will also be evident through new approaches
to interpreting the Christian faith to all the people who come through the Abbey’s doors.
An engagement with societal issues is open-ended and our long-term to-do list (all of it integral to Footprint) has
plans: to make facilities available to community and volunteer groups; to support homelessness initiatives; to share
recovered energy as part of a district heating scheme; to offer additional employment and volunteering
opportunities; and to engage with the significant challenges faced by the city today, how we live and find a home in
a healthy community.
Aspirations of worship, hospitality and engagement define the Bath Abbey Footprint project. Footprint has already
made a physical as well as a spiritual imprint with work on the Abbey floor begun, with the refurbishment of the
Victorian chandeliers completed and with the installation of glazed doors in the south-west entrance. The 2007
Abbey Vision Statement: Where Earth and Heaven Meet has informed these changes and, whilst the vision has
developed since 2007, it is worth reminding ourselves of the definition of needs defined at that time:
Abbey Vision Statement. 2007
 toilets sufficient for full-house concerts and services
 environmentally responsible heating and lighting
 improved storage capacity
 light, flexible staging
 more flexible and comfortable seating
 improved visibility through the use of modern technology
 the possible re-siting of the Montagu tomb
 improved access for visitor and pilgrim alike
 integrate the whole Abbey with its offices in Kingston Buildings
5
The Footprint project team moulded these needs into an architectural specification that, in March 2013, gained
planning permission and listed building consent for the proposed work outside the Abbey. Concurrent with this
effort have been consultations with building professionals of relevant disciplines plus many in the local community
and a plethora of statutory and advisory authorities including: Ancient Monuments Society, Bath Preservation Trust;
Church Buildings Council; Diocesan Advisory Committee, English Heritage; Georgian Group; Society for the
Protection of Ancient Building; Victorian Society. Consequently, some of our needs have been refined and new needs
have emerged, particularly with respect to stablising the Abbey floor and to the way we interpret the Abbey.
Our current needs were summarised at the beginning of the November 2013 application to the Heritage Lottery
Fund, which stated: “Bath Abbey is a vibrant and internationally significant parish church currently serving nearly
500,000 people annually. Footprint is a transformative programme of capital works, interpretation, collections care
and sustainable energy, provoked by the urgent need to repair and renew its collapsing historic floor.” The HLF
application went on to provide four headings, the final one of which circles back into the vision of People and Place
Fully Alive:
• reducing impact: stabilising the floor foundation, renewing its surface, and using the unique hot
springs as a source of energy
• enlarging capacity: fulfilling the Abbey as a place of congregation, equal access and hospitality
• retelling an ancient story: recording and interpreting the long history of the Abbey site
and this iconic church for millions of visitors
• becoming a People and Place Fully Alive: worship, hospitality and engagement
As with earlier versions of the Statement of Need, we continue in the belief that the correct approach is to reuse and
better connect existing resources in a unified approach that seeks to solve problems inside the Abbey and to create
capacity outside. A fuller realisation of the interconnectedness of these aims means that in this revised Statement of
Need we have combined two sections – Inside the Abbey and Outside the Abbey – into a single series of statements
for a seamless progression from within the Abbey itself to spaces in the Jackson extension, the vaults and Kingston
Buildings.
Feasibility studies considered various buildings in the area to provide the space for these needs but issues of access,
ownership, location, and the potentially detrimental impact on a World Heritage setting drove us to the solutions
proposed here. The opportunity to lease 11A York Street (2011) and the willingness of Bath & North East Somerset
Council to lease the basement of Abbey Chambers (2012) made the links between the Abbey-owned spaces possible,
as well as providing the additional space for the facilities required.
Our aim is to make the Abbey fit for future generations and also to secure income now and in the future. We need to
achieve both aims with a sensitivity that balances our anticipation of increasing usage in ways that avoid harming the
precious Abbey and the Abbey’s Georgian terrace, 9 – 13 Kingston Buildings. Inside the Abbey our prime needs are
to repair the floor and exploit the opportunities for geo-thermal heating. Beyond the Abbey, we must weigh
administrative and choral demands against the impact on what was originally an early 19th century domestic terrace.
This Statement of Need follows Church Buildings Council guidance. The longest section considers each need in turn
with a basic definition of the need, the reasons informing the need and the proposals to meet it. At the end are
separate sections expanding on environmental sustainability, other options considered and the need to provide
flexible seating arrangements in the nave.
6
Four values have guided the preparation of the document and they form the criteria against which the future
developments will be measured:
• solutions must be integrated so the Abbey and its buildings can operate coherently
• solutions must honour the beauty and architectural significance of the medieval Abbey and the
historic and cultural context in which the Abbey is situated
• solutions involving spaces must offer the possibility of multi-purpose use, bearing in mind the
changing needs from one generation to another
• solutions should be long term and with a view to a hundred years of use
Set in the context of the ages, we see how succeeding generations of Christians have developed what they believed
were the best ways of expressing their faith, both in the architecture of the Abbey and its furniture. A clear example
of a perceived need for change was in the Victorian era when the congregation required better visibility, some heat in
winter, artificial light to read orders of service, a stable floor and comfortable seating for all – not just the few. The
solutions were radical and appropriate: pews, a rebuilt floor, chandeliers, central heating with heat rising from castiron gratings, and the open view down the nave. Once again, contemporary demands oblige us to find equally
appropriate solutions, which, if necessary, will be as radical as those of our Victorian forebears.
There is no doubt this Statement of Need presents a challenge: Can we do this? The magnificence of the building
and its unique situation at the heart of Bath demand that it is a challenge to which we respond, “With the help of
God, we will.”
The Reverend Prebendary Edward Mason
Rector of Bath Abbey
7
BASIC FACTS, GENERAL INFORMATION AND RECENT EVENTS
Parish Bath Abbey with St. James
Dedication St. Peter and St. Paul
Benefice Bath Abbey with St. James i.e. one church in benefice
Diocese Bath and Wells
Address Bath Abbey, 12 Kingston Buildings, Bath, BA1 1LT
Grid reference ST 75137 64772
Local planning authority Bath & North East Somerset
County Somerset
Statutory listing of church Grade I
Statutory designation for contents None
Statutory designation for churchyard and objects within it The paved Abbey churchyard to the west of the Abbey is
owned by the local authority. Ownership of the Abbey and its surroundings is currently being registered with the
Land Registry. The Abbey also has a cemetery which is about one mile from the church and which is full and (mostly)
maintained by the local authority.
Conservation area Yes
Scheduled Monument No
Tree Preservation Orders Not applicable
Protected Species None
County Wildlife Site/SSSI No
Any other designations Bath is a UNESCO World Heritage site
Staff Bath Abbey is a charity registered with the Charity Commission and the 30 trustees of the charity form the
Parochial Church Council (PCC). The PCC has five clergy members and 25 lay members. Sub-committees consist of
Finance, Mission Links and Personnel, with an emergency Standing Committee.
Day-to-day management of the Abbey is overseen by the Rector, two Associate Vicars and two Churchwardens, who
are supported by a team of 30 full and part-time staff (20 full-time equivalent). In addition, the Abbey also employs
approximately 70 choir members and 40 casual staff who guide Tower Tours, welcome visitors and work as stage
crew.
Over 200 volunteers serve the Abbey as:
• Welcomers, stewards, guides and chaplains for visitors
• Churchwardens, deputy wardens, service support
• PCC officers, money counters, bell ringers
• Youth workers and choir chaperones
• Archive and collections assistants
• Project advisory panel and appeal board members
Ancillary buildings: Immediately to the south of the Abbey is Kingston Buildings comprising five terraced houses
currently used for Abbey offices, storage and residential use. The Abbey owns Kingston Buildings and, in addition,
has recently leased another terraced house in an adjacent street.
The city of Bath has a population of 84,000, which is served by many churches. The parish of Bath Abbey with St
James has a small residential population and primarily consists of commercial properties. Most of the regular
congregation and the 564 people on the electoral roll (2014) live in other parishes.
8
There are daily services of morning or evening prayer or Holy Communion. The standard pattern of Sunday services
and average numbers attending are:
08:00 – BCP Holy Communion – 40
09:30 – CW Parish Communion – 170
11:15 – BCP Matins (or Sung Eucharist) – 200
15:30 – Choral Evensong – 80
18:30 – Informal worship – 100
Total: 590 worshippers
The Abbey also sustains a pattern of annual services in celebration of the Christian calendar. These services draw in
occasional worshippers on a regular basis and encourage Christians in surrounding parishes. Also many local
organisations hold annual or occasional services in the Abbey.
The Abbey congregation is predominantly older than the population in general and there is a large number of
members beyond the state retirement age.
Young people up to 18-years-old are accommodated in several groups and at secondary age most belong to the
Abbey boys’ and girls’ choirs. A junior choir, Melody Makers, meets mid-week and the Abbey runs a Singing in
Schools programme with regular workshops and/or concerts in the Abbey. The facilities for these groups are wholly
inadequate. The By The Way informal evening services attract a younger congregation.
A number of children visit the Abbey during the week with families and with school groups and are provided with
quizzes and occasional tours. During 2012, 5,500 quizzes were given to children. In addition, during the latter part
of Lent, an Easter Experience is laid out around the Abbey during which school groups experience the Easter story.
During 2014, 650 children from 17 schools came to the Abbey for this event.
Aside from being a place of prayer, worship and Occasional Services, the Abbey has several secondary roles as a
visitor destination, a performance space (for audiences anywhere between 10 and 1,000), a general civic space and
an exhibition space. We welcome over 400,000 visitors annually and the Abbey is open to the public during daylight
hours.
9
During 2013/14, Bath Abbey hosted:
Music
Free lunchtime recitals
Afternoon organ recitals
Bath International Music Festival
City of Bath Bach Choir
Bath Choral Society
Bath Philharmonia
Mozartfest
Bachfest
Bath Minerva
Bournemouth Symphony
Jane Austen Festival
National Osteoporosis Society Concert
Kenneth Bert Graves Memorial
London Concertante
Radio
Live broadcasts of worship on Radio 3 and Radio 4
Exhibitions
Bath Abbey Diptychs
Odyssey: works by Damien Hirst, David Mach, Tessa Farmer
Think Different: works of the homeless and poorly housed
Hospitality exhibition
The Crucifixx by Michael Kenny
Graduation
University of Bath
Bath Spa University
Norlands College
City of Bath College
Carol services For 15 local schools and businesses and 12 Shoppers’ Services
Civic events
The Mayor Making
Installation of HRH Prince Edward as Chancellor of the University of Bath
Charter Trustees service
Bath Abbey is solvent, has accumulated some reserves over the last five years and pays its parish share in full.
Visitor donations in 2013 amounted to £552,283. About £360,000 is held in a fabric reserve and about £394,000 is
held in a general reserve. The £1 million sale of the lease of a medieval town house has funded preparatory
Footprint project work. Further funds are being sought through a fund-raising campaign that started in 2012, in
particular from the Heritage Lottery Fund, trusts, foundations and individual benefactors.
The 2014 Quinquennial inspection report indicates the Abbey is generally in good condition and has provided a
detailed list of tasks required over the next five years plus suggestions of annual preventative work.
10
THE NEEDS
a) Crossing and dais
A long list of needs begins with the needs of worship. Our most pressing liturgical need is for the communion service
to be led from the Abbey’s central point, which means placing the main communion table immediately west of the
crossing to provide effective sight lines.
The communion table is the heart of our life together when we receive the bread of heaven and the cup of salvation
in a foretaste of the heavenly banquet. Placing the Eucharist at the heart of our community, as we do, begs a
centrality of the communion table and a worship in the round that is impossible in the Abbey as it is set out at
present. The most numinous part of Abbey life needs to be the most central and the most inclusive.
The current nave altar is too small and moving it between the Alphege chapel and the crossing for Sunday worship is
a heavy task. A new altar needs to be lighter than the present nave altar but large enough for communion services
when the Abbey is packed to capacity. When staging is required, the nave altar could run on silken castors and be
stored either at the east end nested with the communion table or perhaps beneath the raising dais.
Worship focussed on the crossing creates a need for improved visibility. A dais able to be lowered into the floor is
the favoured solution. It would elevate the communion table approximately 350mm and then retract flush with the
floor. Creating a storage space beneath it is highly desirable for storing liturgical furniture.
b) Font and baptistery
As essential to the Christian faith as the communion table is the font, the place of baptism, the place where Christian
discipleship begins. Jesus invites everybody to take a journey that passes through the waters of baptism to new life
in Him and to walk in faith with our brothers and sisters sustained by the bread and wine of the new kingdom. The
font is the first sign of this journey to the heavenly banquet and moving it to a central position in front of the west
doors makes more explicit the move to faith. The font design cries out for an imaginative solution and any design
would have to be decided after an overarching faculty was granted. The design should combine a place of infant
baptism with a place of total immersion for adults. The existing Kemble font could be incorporated into the new
baptismal area.
c) Sanctuary and altar
A central communion table and a less hierarchical approach to worship forces an adjustment to the way we view the
high altar and the sanctuary. They need to be reimagined in reflection of the new context provided by the centrally
placed communion table. For the present, the current layout should remain unchanged. In the future, once the
church is operating principally from a central dais, the possibility of reordering the sanctuary will be considered.
d) Floor
The Abbey’s prime structural need is to stabilise and repair the floor, a necessity that paves the way for meeting our
needs of worship and performance, and for an environmentally sound exploitation of geo-thermal heating.
The Abbey’s 1,380m² of flooring has been subject to subsidence due to centuries of burials and to the compromises
introduced during its rebuilding in the 1860s. The archaeological evaluations in 2011 and 2012 revealed the
existence of many large voids caused by the collapse of burials underneath the floor, including one extending
11
beneath a main nave pillar. The 2013 trial repair of 5 per cent of the floor also revealed voids closer to the surface
than previously thought and showed the north aisle floor was already beginning to collapse. Best estimates are that
30 per cent of the under-floor volume between the current floor and floor of the former Norman cathedral is air.
At surface level, the increasing numbers of people who pass through the Abbey each year are accelerating the rate
at which a floor, already in poor condition, deteriorates. Ledger stones are breaking up, some having been chopped
up to accept heating trenches and to fit the required space. Edges present trip hazards all over the Abbey floor for
the congregation, elderly, disabled and visitor alike. In the past they have been smoothed over with unsightly
screeds that are detrimental to the historic fabric.
We need an even and stable floor, which is beautiful in design and worthy of a building of the Abbey’s quality and
the 2013 method for repairing the floor is being trialed as a long-term solution that will provide the opportunity to:
• assess, record and interpret the ledger stones by recruiting and training volunteers
• collect the remains of burials disturbed in the 19th century and reinter them in a respectful
manner
• fill the voids while ensuring the layers of intact archaeology are left undisturbed
• provide a structurally sound floor that is also breathable and sufficiently insulated
• install underfloor heating system using waste energy from the Roman Great Drain and replace
an inefficient Victorian heating system, which is becoming increasingly unsustainable as the
Abbey struggles to reduce its carbon footprint
Early Footprint work has established an undeniable and urgent need for floor repair which, dealt in a piecemeal way,
might cause unscheduled Abbey closures that would affect annual income and jeopardise the Abbey's activities.
Although Bath Abbey is not yet on the buildings-at-risk register, failure to respond to these issues will seriously
compromise its future.
It should be noted that the current step-less access to the Abbey floor is a major natural advantage compared with
many churches and other buildings and it is one to be retained, as part of our compliance with legal requirements for
disabled access. An access audit has been completed.
e) Chapels (Gethsemane Chapel, Birde Chantry, Alphege Chapel)
There is a need for space on the Abbey floor that is quiet at all times, and the feasibility of making one of the chapels
more acoustically isolated from the rest of the Abbey is desirable.
Birde Chantry and Gethsemane Chapel
The Birde Chantry and Gethsemane chapel are to remain largely unchanged; the possibility of one or both
being better sound insulated to provide a quiet space for prayer is to be investigated. The lighting of both
spaces is inadequate and should be reviewed. Changing the door of the Birde Chantry should be considered;
the design of the current door does not match the surrounding architecture.
Alphege Chapel
Apart from repair of the floor, no changes are proposed to the chapel at present. Future changes should take
into account any modifications in the sanctuary (see Sanctuary and altar, section c) above).
12
f) Corporation stalls
Issues of architectural, artistic and historic significance inform the retention of the Corporation stalls. Reduction in
the depth of the pews behind the Corporation Stalls by one row on each side will increase accessibility. The current
passages behind these pews result in pinch points and consequential damage to stone work and joinery. Raising
these pews will improve visual links to the high altar and provide a convenient storage space for the modular staging
currently preventing access to the north transept.
g) Choir stalls
Seating for the choir should be provided in new choir stalls that are lighter and easier to move than the current
stalls. The current choir stalls damage the floor when moved and offer few alternative positions for services and
concerts. The new choir stalls must have a similar capacity to the current ones and could be used in a variety of
configurations with arrangements in curved or collegiate styles, or straight across on a north-south axis.
h) The nave
Our need is to reflect contemporary demand for a flexible worship space that can accommodate different seating
layouts. Liturgy is no longer monochrome and it is essential to us that the Abbey nave be restored to its original open
space with appropriate seating. Therefore our desire is to remove the nave pews to allow for varying modes of
worship and performance, and to provide cathedral style chairs with limited stackability. A range of options have
been considered to meet the future seating needs; chairs are believed to best meet the needs of worship. The
selected design must match the architectural style of the building.
The nave pews were installed as a 19th century addition with no historic precedent and arguably detract from the
Perpendicular Gothic interior; many find them uncomfortable. This must be considered in the context of elderly
members of the congregation, those with access requirements, those attending performances, and the over 400,000
yearly visitors. The pew plinths are showing signs of considerable wear, increasing their potential as a trip hazard and
in the side aisles they leave little space for access between the pews and walls. The pew plinths also are
incompatible with the installation of an underfloor heating system.
The issue of pew removal is further considered on pages 36-42.
In April 2009 the PCC agreed the following statement: “We desire seating suitable for the ministry of the Abbey in
the 21st Century. The PCC is open to the possibility of accepting a design that replaces pews with cathedral-style
chairs but this must be a consequence of an integrated design of floor, heating, and storage of any chairs when they
are not required.” Since then 86 per cent of the PCC agreed the current nave pews should be removed.
Alternatively, appropriate modern pews could be provided: appropriate to their setting and meeting the modern
need for comfort in the context of worship and performance. The provision of kneelers and hymn book shelves
should be decided when new furniture is proposed.
i) North and south aisles
It is conceived that generally removal of the pews from the side aisles will provide open spaces (see the need stated
more fully in the nave section above) with seating on stackable chairs, which could be stored on carousels in the York
Street vaults when not required. Circulation of visitors will be improved and the liberated space will be available for
exhibitions and occasional events. The setting and visibility of the highly significant wall memorials will also be
greatly enhanced by the removal of these pews. Fund raising and volunteers’ suppers have already been held in the
newly opened out north aisle.
13
j) South and north transepts
The south transept should remain as is. It is one of the Abbey’s only open spaces, and demonstrates the imaginative
ways in which a free floor area can be used.
The north transept needs to be cleared of staging and all other items. Current storage requirements are detracting
from the Abbey’s proportions and, additionally, the bases of the pillars and floor are suffering scuff damage due to
the shifting of staging from the transept. The best way of solving this most pressing storage problem is outlined in
the Corporation stalls section above. We look forward to a liberated north transept that has been unlocked for
interpretative and educational activities.
k) Sacristy
When the clergy vestry is moved to the redeveloped vaults, the current vestry can be remodelled to meet our need
of extending the public realm. While this space will still be used to support worship on Sundays, it will normally be
open to the public from Mondays to Saturdays. The fine Jacobean ceiling will be conserved as part of the project and
then will become generally accessible. The west wall of this space is very thick and had two large safes built into it in
1960’s. It is proposed that more of the wall be opened out to incorporate display units. Also a sink and a computer
point is needed, probably installed in the north-east corner of the room.
l) Montagu tomb
We need to balance the historic and aesthetic significance of Bishop James Montagu’s 17th century tomb with the
need to open out the nave. We propose moving the tomb to a similar location but two bays further west because it
would render the north aisle more accessible and increase visibility for larger congregations and audiences.
Objections have been made to this proposal and we are keenly aware that the impact and feasibility of the move
should be considered in detail. A detailed survey and risk analysis will be undertaken prior to a decision on whether
this need could be met.
m) Heating, ventilation and insulation
Heating within the Abbey is wasteful. Our Victorian convected air system needs expensive maintenance, is hungry
for fuel and most of the heat rises to the roof. Meanwhile, there are cold spots at ground level due to down
draughts from the windows making several large areas uncomfortable for the congregation. Heating grilles
throughout the building are trip hazards and offer unsightly views into unreachable trenches.
We require heating to render the Abbey comfortable throughout the year for people sitting in the building for two
hours wearing clothing appropriate for the season. The system should also make it comfortable for those working in
the building. In addition, we require that the building is ventilated more efficiently than at present.
The solution to the heating need is one of the most attractive and easily promoted parts of the Footprint project,
namely exploiting a large proportion of the 1.5 megawatts of continuous energy from the hot water that flows
through the Roman Great Drain into the River Avon. Diverting this natural energy source through a heat exchanger in
newly opened vaults and thence into an underfloor heating system will help us to approach targets set down in the
Church of England’s Shrinking the Footprint national campaign specifying a 42 per cent reduction the Abbey’s carbon
footprint by 2020. The heat output from the trial repair of the north aisle floor is being monitored in anticipation of a
new sustainable heating system.
Ventilation options are being investigated. One possibility is installing adjustable ventilation grilles in the ringing
chamber floor to disperse up draughts from below and, from above, to give a spectacular view down to the crossing.
14
A comprehensive approach will be taken to insulate the ancillary buildings involved in the project.
n) Lighting
Despite our magnificent windows, the Abbey can be a gloomy place that needs suitable lighting to foster a prayerful
atmosphere. We need to enhance both the general level of illumination and the ability to highlight areas from where
worship is being led or performances are taking place. This is necessary to realise the Abbey’s aspiration to
illuminate its congregations and audiences.
The current house lighting in the Abbey is inadequate and the control system allows for few changes during a service
or other event. Lighting levels, especially in the side aisles, are well below the recommended minima for reading and
this impacts on congregation and audience alike. In the nave, the lighting is slightly better, particularly beneath the
recently restored chandeliers, but is still not adequate. Poor illumination also increases the risk of trip hazards, in
particular as long as the floor remains uneven.
The performance lighting will need some modification in view of the house lighting proposals. The demand is to
enable specific pools of light to fall on the high altar, the crossing, the area inside the west doors, the side chapels,
the transepts, the nave and the repositioned font. The opportunity provided by such modification should be used to
reduce the visual prominence of the current performance lighting, which detracts from the atmosphere of the
Abbey. The current performance lighting represents a high maintenance load and there is a need for longer life,
lower energy fittings.
Responsibility for the exterior floodlights has recently passed from the local authority to the Abbey, and as a result
there is now in-house control over the night time appearance of the ‘lantern of the west’. There is now a need to
develop a new exterior lighting scheme, both to complement proposed changes to city centre lighting and to match
our own interior lighting.
An important aspect of the Gilbert Scott restoration was the pair of Skidmore iron lanterns designed alongside the
recently restored chandeliers. The lanterns were mounted on the buttresses either side of the west doors but are
now in storage and in a poor state of repair. The feasibility of their restoration and refitting as part of the Abbey’s
external lighting will be investigated.
o) Acoustics
We need everyone in the Abbey to hear what happens at the altar, in the choir or under the crossing. With a
reverberation time of 4.5 seconds, speech, song, and music become unclear towards the back of the nave. We do
not wish to detract from the Abbey’s natural acoustic (which has defined religious music since the beginning of its
association with this building type), but rather ensure that everyone can appreciate it.
Hearing the word or the performance is a particular challenge in the Abbey. For those who are hard of hearing or for
congregations of over 400, acoustics are a problem. Now the Abbey is increasingly being used for different sound
productions and given that it houses a world-class organ, we desire clarity and audibility appropriate for the size of
the building. This reinforces the need for staging (so that sound is well transmitted above congregations and
audiences) and a review of the current audio system.
15
p) Entrances
Our need is for welcoming and accessible entrances to the Abbey. The way in (be it via one or more doors) should be
prominent, easy to find and inviting to the most timid of visitors. It needs to be as wide as necessary for an inclusive
and accessible welcome but able to be narrowed to reduce flow at busy times when we or other organisations need
to process people for tickets, or for exclusive events such as weddings. In particular we need the capacity to enable
wheelchairs and pushchairs to easily access the building.
We need an improved main entrance to the Abbey to make the building more attractive to all. The current entrance
through the north-west porch has been improved recently but is still something of a physical and visual barrier. The
Abbey’s entrance should be as open as possible with the thinnest of veils between inside and outside.
Current thinking is that our needs will be best met as follows: the NW door (with an inner door matching the SW
entrance) will remain the primary entrance from where visitors are welcomed and then guided to the nave; the
remodelled Jackson extension shop will be a more obvious main exit; the SW door is assumed to provide a
secondary exit; and the west front doors should remain useable for Sunday services and other occasional events.
As the primary entrance, the NW porch should also have a limited potential to meet some retailing needs, see r)
below. The size of the porch should be driven by the space required for the functions within it.
q) Jackson extension
The Jackson Extension provides a new south entrance to the building. It is proposed that the small 1920’s windows
be replaced by much more extensive glazing within the existing mullion stonework. These new openings will all have
the potential of being converted to windows or doors. The impact of this change will be to make the building more
physically and visually accessible. It will also reclaim and reactivate the historic monastic cloister which currently has
minimal public offerings into it.
In meeting the new needs of enlarging capacity, retelling an ancient story and making the Abbey a place more fully
alive means the 1920s Jackson extension must be imagined on two levels.
The ground floor upper level will have a primary role as a circulation space with an invitation to go to the lower floor
and the vaults beyond. It will be the main retailing area and could also include a drinks capability using tables outside
on the Abbey curtilage. Access will be from the Abbey or via one or two of the windows/doors that will form a more
welcoming south facing frontage.
The lower basement level will meet interpretation needs and be one of the points of ingress to the refectory and the
other basements vaults beyond, see u) and v) below.
r) Retail
With enhanced interpretation and increased footfall, the need is to develop and refine a successful retailing
operation.
Retail capability at least as effective as the current shop is required. If possible, this should be on the same level as
the Abbey floor and the Jackson extension is best suited to match this need. In addition a more efficient
arrangement is needed for the storage of stock. Current shop storage is shared between Kingston Buildings and
underneath the raised floor in the shop area itself. Both have issues in terms of access and general health and safety.
16
Potential shop storage is available at the end of the Jackson extension lower level and the possibility of further
basement level storage towards the Roman baths should be investigated.
Further retailing possibilities are envisaged in the refectory and in the NW porch. Both places should be equipped
with electronic point of sale terminals, electronic Gift Aid facilities and be capable of handling bookings for tower
tours, concerts and other events.
s) Clergy vestry
The clergy’s preparation for services should be in a separate space from the management of the Abbey floor in a
vestry slightly more remote from the interior of the church than the current one.
The need is for a fully equipped area relocated next to the Abbey at the north-west corner of the new vaults complex
and adjacent to the stairs leading up into the Abbey. The primary role is for robing clergy with a subsidiary use for
counting money and as a green room for concert soloists.
Within the vestry there is a need for a laying out surface and adequate hooks/rails for times when a number of
clergy, servers and vergers are all trying to dress before and after services. Better storage is needed for liturgical
vestments because the present arrangement of copes and chasubles on coat hangers in cramped cupboards is
damaging them.
Storage is also needed for silverware, altar frontals and large altar linens. Somewhere other than the than the safe is
needed for the Reserved Sacrament and the Holy Oils, which should not be kept in the same place as cash. These
needs are likely to be met in the sacristy rather than the clergy vestry.
t) Visitor management/enlarging capacity
Once the Footprint project is completed, the number of Abbey visitors is anticipated to rise up to 50 per cent (based
on the experience of other major HLF funded projects). Enlarging capacity creates extra needs. Abbey staff and
volunteers already struggle to cope with the demands of people visiting a severely restricted city centre site where
Victorian interventions have made flexible use of the space impossible. More visitors will place further strain on the
Abbey’s medieval fabric and enlarging capacity must not come at the expense of sustainability. The reordering work
within the Abbey needs to allow where possible for the increased visitor numbers. In anticipation of significant
increases in footfall, the Footprint team is seeking advice on visitor flow and route planning, both during and after
the completion of planned works within the Abbey.
u) Interpretation
Overarching the Footprint project are emerging needs for interpretation that are being informed by the plans to
enlarge capacity, retell our stories and evolve into a place more fully alive to every visitor. These needs must always
take into account that Bath Abbey is of high significance in architectural and archaeological terms and its central role
within a World Heritage City.
New modes of interpretation will unlock the memories the building contains through themes such as crisis and
celebration, remembrance, creativity, healing and justice. Digital media and innovative arts-based interpretations
will tell the Abbey’s stories in ways that will reach new audiences while remaining sympathetic to the historic site
and the vision of the worshipping community. In providing World Heritage-class interpretation and activities, we will
find fresh ways of narrating the stories of the people who have lived and worshipped on the site. The Footprint
project provides an opportunity to create an holistic interpretation programme throughout the Abbey, including the
Abbey cemetery on the outskirts of the city. Its most up-to-date expression is in four documents published during
17
2013, namely: an Interpretation Audit; an Interpretation Strategy; an Interpretation Plan; and the HLF application.
They are summarised below.
The Interpretation Audit said there was a need to extend current interpretation “beyond well educated adults with
an interest in church architecture and good knowledge of English history”. The “need for improved intellectual
access” would result in an experience that:
• left visitors with a clear, coherent idea of the Abbey’s history and purpose
• clearly focused visitors attention upon significant features
• highlighted how the Abbey was built as a response to Christianity
• celebrated the Abbey’s sense of place at the heart of a community
• highlighted the significance of the archive and collection
• reflected current best practice
The Interpretation Strategy is an internal document written by the Abbey’s Heritage Interpretation Group. It began
by quoting a report commissioned by the Foundation for Church Leadership and the Association of English
Cathedrals. This indicates that visitors appreciate major churches such as Bath Abbey for the manner in which they
convey the history and tradition of Christianity and of the area that they inhabit and sometimes embody; they have a
unique and universally-recognized position in English society, a position that is dependent on much more than their
role as tourist destinations.
The Heritage Interpretation Group identified the following needs:
• developing an understanding of the Abbey’s audience
• developing ideas about how to engage with this audience
• defining a ‘core story’
• detailing themes which are included within this core story
• setting out a preliminary Interpretation Plan proposal, which establishes some principles for the
development of interpretation and the use of spaces within the Abbey complex.
A Heritage Interpretation Group analysis of a Summer 2013 visitor survey concluded:
• interpretation needs to accommodate people who have no previous acquaintance with the site, and who may not
have an established familiarity with aspects of church architecture, history, or use
• interpretation must also cater for people who have an interest in, and may have some knowledge
about, church history and architecture
• Content must be designed with the needs of non-Anglophone and non-European audiences in
mind
• interpretation must accommodate a high number of visitors (on average around 1,200 per day and peaking in
August at around 2,000 per day)
• interpretation must accommodate the needs of individuals and of formal and informal groups
• interpretation may be an important resource to support the development of an education
audience for the Abbey. At present this audience is very small, and there is a need for more
research in order to identify opportunities both to develop this audience, and to serve it to a high
standard
18
The Interpretation Plan was informed by the following principles:
• respect but don’t isolate the primary function of the Abbey
• support visitors’ engagement with the Abbey’s heritage
• build on the strengths of existing interpretation
• interpretation resources should support the engagement of an international audience
• give visitors choice
• avoid locating interpretative media in circulation spaces
The plan said that outside the Abbey interpretation should focus on the iconography of the west front and on the
existence of earlier churches on or near the site. Inside, the focus will be on the experience of Abbey people and
interpretation will use stories of individuals and communities. During the development phase the interpretive effort
will focus on explaining the work on the floor and installation of the geothermal heating system. Inside the Abbey
will be the interpretation spaces outlined in the next section.
A crucial part of the interpretation strategy is in the use of art to interpret the faith of this and previous worshipping
communities. The annual Abbey programme demonstrates a commitment to spiritual reflection through exhibitions
of art in a faith setting; and there is a need for the Abbey to build on its tradition of exhibiting artwork and
sculptures. There are few areas that accommodate these ambitions to any standard and, whilst no dedicated
exhibition space is required, more adaptable seating arrangements and better lighting will create the potential to
use other areas of the Abbey for exhibitions.
The application made to the Heritage Lottery Fund in November 2013 had this to say about interpretation: “The
Abbey welcomes over 400,000 visitors each year, more than any other UK parish church outside London. However it
is prevented from helping them engage with the story of the site and its communities because of current limitations.
Improving the standard of interpretation is vital to how the Abbey perceives its mission. The most frequently asked
questions come down to three main themes: people, place and purpose. The intention is to answer these important
questions within the context of the medieval church building and it is intended that both the north and south
transepts will be adapted for interpretation activities, as well as a dedicated interpretation centre to tell the stories
of the communities who have lived and worshipped here for over a thousand years. The space for the interpretation
centre is particularly suitable as there will be visible layers of 18th century, medieval, Norman, Anglo-Saxon and
Roman archaeology on view for the first time. We also intend to make the new heat exchanger for the geo-thermal
project visible from the underground level, linking the hot springs to themes of worship, healing, and to the presentday sustainable energy project.”
In conclusion, the Abbey does not do enough to help visitors engage with the story of the church and its
communities. There is a pressing need to exploit modern interpretive approaches, not least to provide the Abbey’s
70 volunteer stewards and the tower tour staff with the materials to help them turn visitors’ intense visceral
experiences of height and light and symmetry into specific memories connecting into individual lives. A failure to
improve standards in interpretation would be to fall short of the way the Abbey perceives its mission.
v) Interpretation centre and education spaces
Within the Abbey we need to minimise the physical and spatial impact of interpretation activities in order to
preserve a peaceful and contemplative atmosphere. The planned interpretation and many educational activities
therefore require space outside the main Abbey structure.
19
An interpretation centre in the newly constructed vaults will concentrate on the Abbey’s history since the Romans.
The interpretation centre will direct visitors to other areas of the Abbey where additional interpretation will be
provided. It will also meet a need for a meeting space for work with school parties and visiting groups plus other
training, outreach and learning activities. We may also need a dedicated space to support the educational work.
w) Collections
The need is to preserve the Abbey’s archives and object collections in accordance with professional collections
management and Accreditation standards in order to improve access to the collections and to support interpretation
and education work.
The Abbey has a wealth of archive material dating back to the 16th century. The parish registers and older archives
are held at the Somerset Heritage Centre in Taunton. Archives from the mid-18th century onwards are held on site
along with current administrative records. Storage conditions are adequate but the long-term preservation and
management of the archives requires improvements. The need is to upgrade in-house facilities to meet the criteria
specified in PD 5454 2012: Guide for the Storage and Exhibition of Archival materials. The archive and office
accommodation require at least the same amount of space as at present, ideally with room for expansion if the
Abbey is to fully meet its own future storage needs and comply with PD 5454 2012 guidelines and the new Archives
Services Accreditation Standard. In addition a dedicated reading room is necessary to make the archives more
accessible to visitors and researchers.
The Abbey’s object collection includes stone fragments from the Norman Abbey, plaster casts of original carvings
from the west front made during the Victorian restoration, the Skidmore lanterns from the same period and
archaeological collections. There is a collection of silver and plate from the 16th century and other significant items
of church furnishing. These are stored in multiple sites including under the clergy vestry floor, in the Abbey’s vaults
and at the Abbey Cemetery chapel. In all cases storage is well below professional standards, which places the
collection at immediate risk. We have an Arts Council status of “working towards accreditation” but in order to gain
full ACE Accreditation we will need to make major improvements in our collections management and especially in
the quality of our collections storage.
In summary, the need is for new collections and archive storerooms, a reading room and office accommodation for
the archivist, collections staff and volunteers to preserve the Abbey’s archives and artefacts, to comply with
professional standards of storage and display and to provide space for access to the collections by members of the
public.
x) Performance
We need to build on our tradition of staging events, a tradition that has seen the Abbey established as one of Bath’s
most important venues. Our need is to improve on standards and to continue hosting events with choirs of at least
120 singers and orchestras above the present limit of 45 musicians. With that comes a set of extended needs for
people flow, lighting, acoustics, catering, toilets, retailing, staging and green room facilities. With the exception of
staging and green room facilities, these points are covered under separate headings.
Recent purchases of staging have enabled the Abbey to offer a variety of worship and performance modes. The
staging has been well received and, in addition to concerts and lectures, is used every week for two principal
services. The raked stage allows people in the nave to see what happens under the crossing, even from the back of
the Abbey. As detailed elsewhere, additional storage will be provided inside the Abbey under the rear corporation
20
stalls and the raising dais; and outside the Abbey in vaults under York Street and elsewhere at basement level, and in
the boiler room and boiler room annex.
Performers at concerts need an adequate green room; at present the clergy and choir vestries regularly double as
this. In this role the clergy vestry is in the wrong place, being too close to the audience; there is a need for space
between the principal players and the audience. Facilities are required for up to six principal performers and up to
120 other performers. These facilities should not be dedicated but should be provided by the secondary use of
spaces that have another primary purpose. This includes the new clergy vestry, large meeting room, choir practice
room and choir vestries.
There is also a need to bring together the controls of operational systems including lighting, sound and TV screens.
To reiterate, improvements are necessary if the Abbey is to continue as a leading performance venue.
y) Choir rooms and associated facilities
The Abbey needs choir facilities adequate for the demands of a strong choral heritage going back at least 200 years
and choirs which are of a very high calibre. The current makeshift arrangements that throw men, boys and girls of all
ages into one changing room without lockers and from where they must fight their way up and down narrow
stairways to shabby toilets outside the workshop, are not acceptable. The rehearsal space is also far from ideal,
being too small and in the midst of a service area. The requirements are:





a music room with generous ceiling height for good acoustics approximately 1.5 metres wider than the current
room and situated away from main audience/congregation areas with its own outside access
provision for a music library
cloakrooms with space for 70 choir robes
an office for the director of music with space for an upright piano and meetings of up to six people
adjoining drinks, servery and toilets.
All this would take the choir room from 38m² to 50m². (As a space standard, a practice facility for approximately 60
should be nearer to 90m², at 1.5m² per person.) Given the space restrictions on the site, we do not believe that
room designated for music should be used exclusively for this purpose. The principal choir practice room would
therefore be open for other uses outside of rehearsal times.
There is a pressing need for an upgrade because, as a venue with a world-class organ and choirs, the Abbey requires
facilities to accommodate choristers of all ages in an acceptable way and to give a proper welcome to an array of
guest choirs, musicians and performers. The proposed solution is to site the choir room in Kingston Buildings with
adjacent vestries, toilets and storage. The facility will have its own external entrance and also have direct
underground access into the Abbey via a flight of stairs.
z) Refectory
The refectory will be at the hub of the newly-opened vaults and be a new space where worship, hospitality and
engagement flow into each other. It will be our most obvious extension of hospitality and an expression of our vision
to make the Abbey more fully alive.
The approach will exemplify Benedictine based traditions and, supporting the Abbey’s need to enlarge capacity, will
offer facilities and infrastructure to serve the city and the wider public. The current plan is to operate as a 21st
century social enterprise and offer training that enables marginalised people to find stable employment in Bath's
21
restaurants and hotels.
This central amenity will also help to meet the Abbey’s interpretation needs. In addition we envisage being able to
expand the refectory into adjoining spaces should the demand arise.
The vault area planned for the refectory is currently used by the Genesis Lifeline project for marginalised member of
society. The Abbey is working with Genesis to secure alternative accommodation that is still within a stone’s throw
of the city centre.
aa) Kitchens and catering
The Abbey holds services and events that demand an upgrade of the current catering facilities. Generous hospitality
is central to the Abbey’s mission and adequate kitchens would also be used for valuable income generation through
catering in support of conferences and concerts.
The need for improved catering facilities is pressing because the existing kitchens are uncoordinated, and
inadequate for current, let alone future, use. The current catering offer is restricted to tea, coffee, juice and water
with sandwiches, biscuits and cakes brought in at extra cost because of inadequate preparation areas. Kitchen space
is critical: catering for 150 (in the Abbey, at 0.4m² per person) = 60m². Catering for 50 in a meeting space = 20m². It
is proposed the kitchen is designed for professional and voluntary staff, and that it will be next to the refectory in the
Abbey Chambers basement.
bb) Meeting rooms
New meeting rooms are another extension of hospitality and engagement. They are required to support all aspects
of the mission of the church. In particular they are needed because there is currently no space outside the main
Abbey that will accommodate more than 25 people.
The current arrangements to cope with a constant in-house demand for meeting space is to squeeze people into
domestic-sized rooms in 9, 12 or 13 Kingston Buildings. The lack of meeting room space and the makeshift quality of
what is available are inhibiting the Abbey’s connection to broader civic life. Improved meeting rooms are integral to
the need for cultural facilities and programming that will contribute to a better quality of life for residents, and to
attract new revenue streams.
The requirement is to enable a far broader civic outreach with three prestigious meeting spaces measuring
approximately 150 m², 75 m² and 30 m². Each space needs a presence memorable enough to make it a renowned
entity in the public realm. Unlike the current provision there needs to be integral sound and AV systems, data
cabling, modern lighting and ventilation and immediate access to kitchen and toilet facilities.
The largest meeting room should accommodate 150 people for conferences, presentations and occasional services
and it would double as a green room, a choir practice area and educational facility. The room needs to be placed so
as to receive people from the Abbey, from the adjacent vaults, or from Kingston Buildings. During large events, it
could be used in tandem with an adjacent medium-sized meeting room whose primary function is the choir practice
room.
A smaller and higher status meeting room is needed for the Abbey’s most private, or intimate meetings. These will
include families arranging baptisms, couples looking to enter into marriage, those coming to the Abbey to arrange
funerals or memorial services and those looking to contribute to the Abbey’s charitable causes. It will be a place to
welcome bishops, archbishops and royalty and will be a valuable resource for civic authorities and similar bodies.
22
Immediate access is not the issue that it is for the larger public rooms. An initial design that included a new space on
the top floor of Kingston Buildings was withdrawn as it was deemed unlikely to have received planning permission.
cc) Offices
The current Abbey offices are located within a row of former cottages and are constrained by the layout of the
cottages. The offices are critical in terms of the day to day running of the Abbey but are unsuitable for their current
use; they are not sized appropriately and communication between people working in different offices is difficult.
Access to many of the offices is by narrow winding stairs, which represents safety hazards. The current reception
area is cramped and there is no suitable waiting area despite receiving visitors daily. The reception area also doubles
as a printing and photocopying space and a stationery store room. A suitable reception area is needed with an
adequate waiting area for up to four people.
Office space is needed for the current complement of 22 staff: being: three full-time clergy, Footprint project
director and administrator, two accountants, two fundraisers, director and assistant director of music,
communications officer, operations manager, visitors' officer, tower tour manager, shop manager, interpretation
officer, archivist, archives cataloguer, the PA to the rector, concert coordinator and a receptionist. Additional space
for a further four people is desirable to accommodate an expanding staff as Abbey activities increase. This will partly
be compensated for by the departure of Footprint and fundraising staff once the project is completed. A hot desk
and filing space is needed for the volunteers on which the Abbey relies, such as the churchwardens. Access to and
between offices should be safe and to modern standards. Distances between offices should be as short as is
practicable and offices should be on the same level where possible with easy access to a drinks facility and toilets.
Workstations need to be provided to meet the above demand. It is considered that an open plan arrangement (with
discrete interview rooms and one or two offices for those who need them) would make for a more integrated Abbey
staff. Workstations should be to British Council for Offices standards, specifying 10m² per person (closed or open
plan). It is proposed that most of the offices are located in Kingston Buildings.
dd) Volunteers
Volunteers give up their own time to manage the hundreds and sometimes thousands of people who visit daily and
they should have an adequate facility for robing and storage. Some 250 volunteers serve the Abbey as: welcomers,
stewards, guides and chaplains for visitors; churchwardens, deputy wardens and service support; PCC officers,
money counters and bell ringers; youth workers and choir chaperones; archive and collections assistants; project
advisory panel and appeal board members; and the flower arrangers who need more than 10m² store and sink area
currently allocated to them.
In short, this contribution to Abbey life is not reflected in adequate space and resources and we need space for
volunteers, which includes cloakrooms with lockable cupboards and a rest area with (or near to) drinks-making
facilities. For ten volunteers at a time, standards allow a 30m² rest/cloakroom.
ee) Children and young people
The Abbey needs to extend its range of childcare services, including a crèche for the very young (especially on
Sundays) and spaces for youth work and educational facilities throughout the week for those up to the age of 18.
Meeting spaces outlined discussed elsewhere in this paper could meet these needs.
23
It is undesirable to continue using the shop as a crèche and using offices for children’s work. An area for
approximately 12 infants requires 2-3m² per person (i.e. about 30m²). Lack of space outside the Abbey itself limits
the educational impact of school group visits and numerous discussions demonstrate the need to extend our current
offer. A large youth space can be doubled up with the large meeting room. Extending reach into a diverse
community must start with the young, hence the immediate need.
ff) Toilets, cloakroom and baby changing facilities
The first item on the 2007 Abbey Vision Statement looked forward to “toilets sufficient for full-house concerts and
services”. Although buried near the bottom of this document, the need for toilets is far from forgotten. Despite
attracting large congregations and performances to packed houses, there is no toilet for public use. This is
unacceptable. Additional toilets are required as soon as possible because the current provision is completely
inadequate for the activities now taking place in the building. There are also child protection issues to be
considered.
Adequate toilets are needed for:
Use by congregations and audiences. Toilets are required for use by people attending services and concerts.
Congregations and audiences regularly reach 1,000 people and the toilet facilities should meet the requirements set
out in BS6465 for audiences of that size (non interval concentrated) which suggest that in an area of 34 m²: two male
WCs, six urinals and four wash basins and; 12 female WCs and seven wash basins. The possibility of cloakroom
facilities adjacent to these toilets should be considered.
The above standard provides adequate facilities for services and concerts but, to minimise maintenance, a subset of
the toilets is also needed when the Abbey is open to the public. Entry to the toilets during this time must be able to
be controlled. This facility could be shared with staff from the Bath Tourist Information Centre. In addition one
separate unisex toilet is required for use by people with mobility constraints.
Clergy/green room WC. One large unisex toilet with generous washing facilities is required for use by clergy and
soloists.
Performers – adults and children. Three unisex toilets and a urinal for at least two men are required. Two separate
toilets are also required for children close to the choir practice room in Kingston Buildings.
Office staff. One male and one female toilet are required for use by office staff in Kingston Buildings. The current
assumption is that the toilets for office staff and a meeting space for 50 people will occupy 26.2 m². Based on 40:60
male/female use this will result in a need for a total of: one male WC, two urinals and two wash basins and; four
female WCs and three wash basins. A single shower is required adjacent to the office toilets
Toilets for people with impaired mobility. At least two toilets are required for people with impaired mobility which
are accessible for visitors and for staff/performers respectively.
Jackson extension. A single unisex toilet is required on the ground floor
Depending on the overall layout it may be possible to combine some of the above needs. In conjunction with the
above, modern, hygienic baby changing facilities are required.
24
gg) Storage
The demand for storage created by the Abbey’s busy life is summarised perfectly in the Abbey Receptionist Annette
Smith’s pastiche of John Masefield’s poem Cargoes:
In-and-outgoes
Boxes of leaflets in many different languages,
Copies for the money counters, children’s groups and BAMS.
Music for the choristers,
Flowers for proposals,
Lime mortar for the floor and some black sharp sand.
Gift Aid envelopes for storing in the archives,
Notice sheets, hymn sheets, prayer cards for Mission Links.
Folding bikes for architects
Coffee for refreshments,
Amnesty petitions, keys and toner inks.
Stationery and paper for use around the office,
Saucepans, jeans and duvets for the Genesis Lifeline.
Glass jars for painting,
Babies for admiring,
The Footprint suppers’ eighteen cases full of wine.
Olive wood from Bethlehem for selling in the Market
Champagne for the Tower Tours and cakes for American Teas.
Posters for concerts,
Candles for Advent,
Striped knitted hats and the choirs’ CDs.
From the architects’ staff consultations to the preparation of this Statement of Need, a constant Footprint project
theme is the need for storage. Storage is costly but we desire all spaces, particularly within the Abbey, to be free of
unnecessary furniture and equipment whilst also answering storage needs of the clergy, the office staff, the shop,
the Friends of Bath Abbey, the volunteers and the maintenance staff. As the Abbey has evolved into many modes of
use, keeping it uncluttered becomes more difficult and the need for new storage is therefore immediate.
We anticipate a clearance of the north transept with the staging it houses moved under newly raised Corporation
stalls. We also need to open up storage facilities in various locations at vault level including under York Street and in
the existing boiler room under the pavement at the south east of the Abbey.
The storage problem will intensify with the replacement of the fixed pews. It is anticipated that the side aisle
stackable chairs will be stored on carousels in the York Street Vaults when not required in the Abbey. It is not
proposed that separate storage be provided for the nave seating.
25
hh) Workshop
For day-to-day maintenance and operation there is the requirement for a dry workshop accommodating a fixed
workbench and vice with storage space for tools, cleaning equipment, paint etc. The current workshop may be
reused for other purposes and, if this is the case, a replacement of smaller dimensions is needed on the assumption
that some of those items stored in the current workshop are kept elsewhere. The current workshop is 30m²; a
workshop of 20m² is considered adequate.
ii) Boiler room
The boiler room in the basement just beyond at the south east end of the Abbey will house a pair of smaller boilers
that will supplement geothermal heating within the Abbey and heat Kingston buildings and the new vaults areas.
There is a need for damp proofing to better suit these three rooms to the storage purposes they already provide.
jj) Disabled access
Overriding all the above needs is a requirement for access for those with disabilities. This includes not only those
with physical disabilities but also sight and hearing impairments.
As detailed in Jane Toplis Associates Ltd report “Bath Abbey Development Proposals Access Appraisal Report at
Stage D” dated 12 July 2012 the work to date has been based on the principles of inclusive design so that when the
project is complete the Abbey will be fully accessible for all potential users.
In particular level access has been provided wherever possible and lifts are planned both for the Jackson extension
and for Kingston Buildings.
The detailed design will be based on the recommendations which form section 13 of the 2012 Access Report
together with the relevant statutory requirements and guidelines.
26
WHAT IS THE EVIDENCE FOR THE NEED?
In the 1990s, some £5 million was spent on improvements to Bath Abbey that included the west front restoration
and interior cleaning, a new Abbey shop and museum, the establishment of St Alphege Chapel, the refurbishment of
the Gethsemane Chapel, the installation of quire screens and the Klais organ, and the removal of some pews. The
project, called Abbey 2000, contributed enormously to its popularity as a tourist/pilgrim destination. Abbey 2000 set
a precedent in envisioning and delivering improvements commensurate to our heritage significance and in support
of our Christian mission and ministry. It may now be seen as the first stage of the current Abbey Development
Project. The Abbey’s commitment to foster faith relevant to every generation means the responsibility has fallen on
us to ensure that it remains fit for purpose for the rest of this century and beyond. Following church council and
leaders’ conferences in 2005 and 2006, the first broad based evidence of a need for change was summarised in the
2007 Vision Statement: Where Earth and Heaven Meet.
In April 2009, a Statement of Need expanded on this evidence of need with detail enough for an architect’s brief.
That summer, the assessment of architects began with a long list of 17 that was whittled down to ten. In autumn
2009, a UK tour gave Edward Mason, Charles Curnock (the administrator) and Peter King (the director of music)
evidence of multiple possibilities and approaches. They met architects and clients at cathedrals in Chester, Ely,
Norwich, Wells and St Paul’s in London, the churches of St Martin-in-the-Fields, Norton-Juxta Kempsey and St James
Priory in Bristol, Hampton Court, Corpus Christi College, the Ashmolean Museum and the Compton Verney Gallery,
the American Museum and Prior Park in Bath. Finally, after a competitive interview, the practice chosen was Feilden
Clegg Bradley Studios (FCBS).
Spring 2010 saw the appointment of FCBS as architects and a project team was formed comprising Abbey
representatives plus a number of consultants including Cotswold Archaeology, Mann Williams structural engineers,
Bare Leaning & Bare quantity surveyors, Buro Happold mechanical and electrical engineers and Carr & Angier
infrastructure consultants. An advisory panel chaired by Sir Peter Spencer, the former chief executive of the Defence
Procurement Agency, with such personnel as Jane Kennedy – Cathedral Architect and English Heritage
Commissioner, supports and challenges the decisions being made as the project develops. FCBS consulted with
members of the extended Abbey community and conducted a staff audit, and then subsequently gave well-received
presentations to the PCC and DAC. Representatives of English Heritage and the Church of England Cathedral and
Church Buildings Division have attended the meetings with DAC representatives involved in many discussions as the
project has progressed. There has also been considerable and continuing liaison with representatives of many local
authority departments and amenity societies such as SPAB, the Victorian Society and the Georgian Group. Further
discussions have been held with many local groups who use the Abbey or are involved with the local community.
Helpful inputs have come from the Abbey’s large congregation, the Friends of Bath Abbey, the Abbey ward
residents’ association, local traders, businesses and residents, the Bath Preservation Trust, Bath Heritage Watchdog,
local councillors from all parties and a number of Lions, Probus, Rotary, Townswomen’s Guild and similar groups.
Trials have been conducted throughout the design process to fully ascertain the extent of needs, minimise risk and
to determine if proposed solutions are feasible.
In January-March 2011 four excavations were conducted within the Abbey with the aim of determining whether the
Norman cathedral walls and foundations were extant and whether they could be used to support a new floor. The
trial showed that the walls no longer existed and that there were large voids beneath parts of the floor. This made
floor repair more necessary than had been anticipated and required considerations of other repair methods.
27
Also in 2011 two excavations were undertaken in the Jackson extension to ascertain the feasibility of constructing a
basement floor. These digs revealed the existence of a late Roman/early Saxon floor on which the Norman cathedral
walls were built and determined that while a lower level was feasible it could not be as deep as first specified.
Additionally in 2011 an excavation outside the south east of the Abbey investigated whether remains of the Norman
Abbey’s south transept walls might impede new underground rooms in that area. No such structure was found.
In January 2012, following concerns raised after earlier trials, was an excavation beside one of the crossing pillars to
determine the extent of the foundations beneath the Abbey’s tower. The trial concluded that the Abbey tower
stands on adequate foundations.
Also in 2012 were six trial digs further away from the Abbey. The Kingston Buildings footings were investigated to
determine if the basement floor could be lowered safely to the same level as surrounding vaults. No impediment
was found. Excavations outside the Seventh Day Adventist church revealed that digging a basement nearby would
necessitate underpinning its front wall.
At the end of 2013 a full trial floor repair was undertaken in the north aisle. It covered some five per cent of the
Abbey’s floor and used a technique developed with information from earlier trials. It was successful and has
provided information to enable the method of repairing the remainder of the floor to be agreed. The trial included
filling deep voids with grout, consolidating and strengthening the shallower ground and installing an underfloor
heating system which will ultimately be fed with hot water that rises in the nearby Roman baths.
Lighting has been another area of investigation. Following a series of trials of light fittings and types, the Abbey’s
chandeliers were successfully refurbished with new fittings and LED lamps.
Looking to the short-term future until 2016, further trials are planned to help us modulate the response to the needs
we have agreed on. This includes removing both sets of side aisle pews to ascertain the impact on the flow of visitors
and building a trial dais to help define the optimum size of proposed hydraulically controlled mechanism.
The Footprint project has now gone through the appraisal and design brief and all concerned were delighted at a
letter from Janet Gough, director of the Church of England Cathedral and Church Buildings Division. She wrote: “It is
gratifying to see the exemplary process which you have instigated here, and may I take this opportunity to
congratulate you on your clear-sighted and sensitive approach to the development and enhancement of this
nationally important church building.”
On a more negative note, if the Abbey is unable to secure full funding and to meet these needs then:
• the floor will continue to collapse, possibly resulting in the Abbey's closure to visitors,
causing permanent damage to the Norman foundations and other archaeological remains
• there will be continued strain and damage to the Abbey caused by the number of activities and
visitors and events held within limited and inflexible spaces
• the opportunity to access the Roman Great Drain and install environmentally sustainable, geothermal heating will be lost
• the opportunity to obtain underground space from B&NES council in order to join up the existing
vaults network will be lost
28
• the Abbey will not be able to achieve its aim to provide access for all and to be a 'people and
place fully alive'
• the Abbey's built and spiritual heritage will remain in its diminished and unsatisfactory state
• the archive and other collections will remain at risk and largely inaccessible
• the limitations on interpretation and learning activities will render visits increasingly irrelevant
and unsatisfying
• maintaining supporter confidence and the knock-on effects for community development,
partnerships and potential fundraising will be significantly more difficult.
For further evidence of the way the Abbey’s extended activities have created fresh needs, we would refer you to our
Statement of Community Involvement dated July 2012.
29
HOW IS THE PROPOSAL CONTRIBUTING TO THE NEED FOR ENVIRONMENTAL
SUSTAINABILITY?
The Abbey has begun addressing issues of sustainability and has acted on recommendations for insulation made in
an energy survey by the Fraser Griffin Consultancy to achieve the targets for energy reduction specified in the
Church of England’s Seven-Year Plan on Climate Change and the Environment. In particular the installation of LED
lighting in the chandeliers has already reduced the Abbey’s energy bill.
It is estimated that the Footprint project will deliver a 35 per cent reduction in fuel usage and reduce the Abbey’s
carbon footprint by an estimated 285 tons of CO₂ equivalent greenhouse gases per year. Further investigations are
aimed at increasing this percentage with the ultimate aim of meeting the targets of 42 per cent carbon footprint
reduction by 2020 and 80 per cent by 2050 as included in the Church of England’s Shrinking the Footprint campaign.
The key energy savings measure is offered by a repaired floor purpose built for under-floor heating provided with
heat from the waste hot spring water. Other major energy savings could be available from:






Double glazing windows
Solar energy capture
Rainwater storage
Deflecting the down flow of cold air from the Abbey windows
Energy from ground source heat pumps
Significantly improved insulation in the Abbey
There also will be full insulation of redeveloped ancillary premises with rooms and other spaces outside the main
part of the Abbey requiring heating and ventilation appropriate to their use and size in accordance with British
Standards.
Work is being done in accordance with the advice contained in Churchcare, the Church of England’s guidance for the
operation and maintenance of churches and in particular with the aim of Bath Abbey meeting the targets specified in
Shrinking the Footprint, the Church’s National Environmental Campaign.
http://www.shrinkingthefootprint.org/index.php and http://www.churchcare.co.uk/
Environmental sustainability and energy saving are key parts of the design undertaken by the Abbey’s mechanical
and electrical consultants at Buro Happold. Please refer to: Buro Happold Buildings 027994 Bath Abbey
Development Stage D Report Draft June 2012.
30
WHAT OTHER OPTIONS TO MEET THE NEED WERE CONSIDERED?
The Abbey’s historic floor is a key conservation issue. To reiterate, stabilizing it is a prime structural need and a
necessity that paves the way for meeting our needs of worship and performance, and for an environmentally sound
exploitation of geo-thermal heating. Recent archaeological evaluations revealed the existence of many large voids
caused by the collapse of burials underneath the floor and best estimates are that up to 30 per cent of the volume
between the current floor and the floor of the earlier Norman cathedral is air. Several strategies have been
considered at floor level and beneath the floor:
Floor level options
Do nothing. Given the existing condition of the floor, trip hazards, and structural failings at depth, doing nothing to
the floor is not a sensible or realistic option. It brings an ongoing commitment to maintenance and expense, without
improvement. At the very least, structural works mean that the ledgers will be lifted for access. It would be a
missed opportunity and mean further intervention were we not to consider improving the floor at this juncture. This
option would preclude the use of underfloor heating
Complete repair and retention in situ. This would involve blanket repair of the ledgers and their relaying in the same
location as existing. This would maximise the amount of retained fabric, but is detrimental to the floor’s primary
function as a safe, clean and clear surface on which to sit, stand or walk. Whilst re-laid ledgers will be more stable
and provide a flush surface, their damaged edges and surfaces will always require generous amounts of pointing.
This approach is also to miss an opportunity to reflect critically on ledgers that are so badly worn or fragmented that
they no longer contribute to a useful or beautiful floor. There are a number of ledgers for which this is the case.
Partial repair and retention in situ. This is the preferred repair method. With a solution that is a blend of retained,
repaired ledgers and new stone flooring (replacing that beyond repair), areas of new Abbey fabric would be an
expression of new layers of craftsmanship. It demonstrates a continued dialogue between people and their places
of worship, illustrating that the Abbey is not a museum to faith, but a living institution. Areas of new floor eradicate
trip hazards, and act as a robust, level new surface for new seating. Loss of some stones need not mean the loss of
their dedications. Their inscriptions might be transferred onto new stone, which also provides the opportunity for
new or future dedications: if desired, the Abbey might continue this established tradition.
Retention and relocation. Here the ledgers are retained, and set down elsewhere in the proposal (i.e. outside the
Abbey). They would be retained in other areas of the Abbey scheme, thus freeing up the Abbey floor for a new
treatment (as above.
Complete replacement. This would mean comprehensive loss of historic fabric. Many of the slabs are in reasonable
/ repairable condition, and many ledgers continue to contribute to the building’s narrative with legible / semi-legible
inscriptions. The use of this strategy is difficult to justify given the extensive loss of historic fabric.
31
Beneath floor level options
Do nothing. As above this would involve ongoing maintenance as the floor continues to subside. It would preclude
underfloor heating.
Drill through the ledgers and grout. This would involve minimal disruption to the ground beneath the floor but
would precluded achieving a level floor or introducing underfloor heating. The probability of filling all the voids
would be significantly less than with more intrusive options.
Lift ledgers, lift limecrete slab and disturbed burials, grout voids between intact burials and reinstate ground and
ledgers. This is the preferred repair method. All intact burials would remain undisturbed and any significant
archaeology would not be interfered with. There is a high probability of filling all the voids and preventing further
subsidence. The method allows also for the installation of underfloor heating. These conclusions have been
confirmed by 2013 North Aisle floor trial.
Excavate graves to Norman floor level. This would obviate the need for grouting and provide an even more robust
solution but would involve disturbing several thousand intact burials. Otherwise it has the advantages of the third
option above.
Options for providing space outside the Abbey
Proposals for work outside the Abbey all seek to lift the pressure from one of this World Heritage City’s most
important historic buildings so that it can continue to form a spiritual part of as many people’s lives as possible. It
must be remembered that works proposed to Kingston Buildings, the vaults, and the Jackson extension enable this,
the Abbey’s primary purpose. The most obvious option is to do nothing beyond routine maintenance and
environmentally-minded tweaking. But this would go against a tradition of change confirmed in archaeological
investigations that revealed layers of city life through Roman, Saxon, Norman, Tudor, Georgian, Victorian and early
20th Century periods.
In addition to the solution using existing and new underground spaces as referred to in earlier sections of this
document, many other options have been considered. The primary options considered and rejected include:
Underground areas to the north and east of the Abbey. The area north and east of the Abbey does not have an
existing vaults network of the sort that makes for the well-connected proposals in the south east corner. The multilevel maze of old vaults on either side of Wade’s Passage would present complex engineering and archaeological
problems. Disruption to the public highway would also be significant. There are also complicated issues of
ownership with this option.
The Friends Meeting House to the south of the Abbey. This is too far away from the Abbey and has access and child
protection issues.
A new building. The option for a new build was considered for High Street or Orange Grove, but interventions on
these highly prominent sites were judged too radical for a World Heritage setting.
32
The following two tables summarise the impact and significance of the proposed changes. The tables are taken from
the Statement of Significance which, in turn, is derived from the Conservation Management Plan (CMP). For further
explanation of the tables please refer to these documents.
FOOTPRINT PROJECT: HIGH AND MODERATE IMPACT
SoN area
CMP area
impact
significance
Floor
Ledger stones
Scott restoration
Burials
high
moderate
moderate
moderate
moderate-high
high
Seating
Nave pews
Scott restoration
high
moderate
moderate
high
The nave
Nave pews
high
moderate
Montagu tomb
Montagu tomb
high
high
Staging/dais
Ledger stones
Burials
Pulpit
high
moderate
high
moderate
high
moderate
Heating/ventilation
Ledger stones
Scott restoration
high
moderate
moderate
moderate-high
Lighting
Scott lighting
moderate
moderate
Interpretation
Kingston Buildings
Jackson extension
Vaults and cellars
high
high
high
moderate
moderate
low-moderate
Entrances
Entrance lobbies
Jackson extension
high
high
low-moderate
moderate
Outside the Abbey
Kingston Buildings
Vaults and cellars
high
high
moderate
low-moderate
33
FOOTPRINT PROJECT: POSSIBLE DELETERIOUS IMPACTS
SoN area
CMP area
impact
significance
Heating /ventilation
Floor
Scott restoration
Religious centre
Tourism
Social activities
high
moderate
low
low
low
moderate
moderate-high
high
high
moderate
Lighting
Scott lighting
Scott restoration
Religious centre
Tourism
Social activities
moderate
low
low
low
low
moderate
moderate-high
high
high
moderate
Acoustics
Religious centre
Tourism
Social activities
low
low
low
high
high
moderate
Visibility
Religious centre
Tourism
Social activities
low
low
low
high
high
moderate
Interpretation
Kingston Buildings
Religious centre
Tourism
Social activities
Vaults and cellars
high
low
low
low
high
moderate
high
high
moderate
low-moderate
Entrances
Entrance lobbies
Jackson extension
Religious centre
Tourism
Social activities
high
high
low
low
low
low-moderate
moderate
high
high
moderate
Outside the Abbey
Kingston Buildings
Vaults and cellars
high
high
moderate
low-moderate
34
THE NEED TO CONSIDER SEATING ARRANGEMENTS IN THE NAVE
The Abbey’s furniture and layout is designed for a Victorian style of worship that is choral, collegiate and led from
the front with the congregation seated in formal rows of pews. Current worship demands more flexibility of seating
and spaces for large and small congregations. Services on any normal Sunday involve:
•
•
•
•
both full choir and contemporary music group
a mixture of formal addresses from the pulpit and more conversational preaching styles
some use of a large screen for data projection
refreshments (currently without a convenient kitchen)
Although nobody can predict the future liturgical practice of the church, trends suggest there will be an increasing
demand for more flexibility of worship. We are convinced future generations will be thankful to be released from
the constraints of previous generations (even this one). It will take a thoughtful creation of space, movable seating
and adaptable lighting, sound and vision.
Bath Abbey demonstrates its need for adaptable space every day. New seating will release the Abbey’s potential as
a place of worship, maintain current capacity at around 1,100 people and obviate the need to repair anachronistic
pews and plinths. (Current seating – including wall benches – is for 695 in the nave and 458 in the Corporation stalls,
south transept, choir and chapels i.e. a total of 1,153.) Removing the pews would also reopen the nave as the
general public area, which it was until the 1860s Gilbert Scott restoration. The seating should also make the Abbey a
more inclusive space, enabling wheelchair users to be part of the congregation/audience rather than having to be
placed in aisles.
Our needs have expanded since the introduction of nave pews in the 1860s, for our services no longer focus
exclusively on sermons delivered from on high to neat ranks of upturned faces. Instead, religious and social changes
carried forward by the Parish Communion movement have established the Eucharist as our central act of worship.
The Lord’s people around the Lord’s table on the Lord’s day.
Putting the Eucharist at the core of liturgy begs a centrality of the communion table that is impossible in the Abbey
as it is set out at present. We want to gather in the round in large and small numbers in a physical expression of two
generous verses from 1 Corinthians 12: “For the body does not consist of one member but of many (verse 14) … Now
you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.” (verse 27). Our heartfelt need is for an Abbey where
even the largest congregations can sit round a table in the presence of Christ. Hierarchical fixed seating locks us into
patterns of a Victorian formality that frustrate our needs for more intimate forms of Eucharistic worship, for informal
worship using a music group, for more fluid forms of informal worship such as night church and city-wide prayer
meetings, for liquid worship using prayer and activity stations around the building. At present the layout does not
assist the practical expression of a single body.
We anticipate several new seating plans. A nave sanctuary in the round could accommodate 780 worshippers all
with lines of sight from deep within the aisles. This is more than the capacity of the present nave. Alternatively,
smaller groups could take part in a liquid mass with more movement and a less formal liturgy. The traditional east
facing arrangement could be replicated easily and then give way to more fragmented prayer workshops seating over
600 with plenty of room for groups to reconfigure. And an open nave might welcome the distressed to impromptu
35
Friday and Saturday night services. And set-piece festivals would be less inhibited. Processions of more than two
abreast (mind the pew ends) could advance on occasions like Advent Sunday, family carols (with donkey),
Candlemas, Palm Sunday and Festival of the Dedication.
Worship is celebration and not merely liturgical event. Worship is an extension of fellowship and a building of
community and our Christian mission is to draw in the mass of people in intelligent participation in both church
services and in broader Abbey activities. A nave floor covered by pews leaves the Abbey frozen in its capacity to
further this part of the mission. We need to clear the way for receptions, dinners, feasts, exhibitions, art
installations, dance, massed choirs and bands, youth festivals, schools’ days and children running through as yet
unimagined events ...
Back to the present and we have hard, narrow and straight-backed pews that are creating problems for nearly
everybody. A consensus holds that, for the average person, discomfort sets in after half an hour. Problems of
discomfort elide into access difficulties that intensify for elderly members of the congregation and the disabled. The
Abbey is not an inclusive place because wheelchair users must remain in the aisles parked slightly apart from the
congregation. So, we can quite credibly claim that the pews discriminate against the old and the disabled. And the
young, and the tall. One of the congregation says: “We always found it a very difficult environment to worship in
when our children were small. For a start, for a long time they couldn’t see over the top of the pews. So they never
took much interest in the service as they didn’t really know what was going on, and they felt very boxed in. I think in
such a large building the pews make it hard for any children to see what is happening very clearly – and it militates
against them moving up to the front or around the church to be able to participate more in the worship.” Bigger
boned 20th century people find it difficult to sit, let alone kneel, in the cramped pews.
Concerts are still more of an ordeal, for while congregations usually stand periodically (or even kneel), concert
audiences must remain seated for prolonged periods. It turns Handel’s Messiah into a hurtful experience and the
Abbey must warn concert promoters of uncomfortable seating, thus discouraging attendance in the city’s second
largest concert venue. Meanwhile, staging possibilities are as unforgiving as the seating. Staging can only be
erected to within a metre of the front pews and is then pushed back into the crossing and down the chancel.
Smaller concerts are sometimes not viable. A specialised recital of, say, Schubert’s Impromptus by a promising
unknown will not attract a large audience. The recital won’t pay its way. Manhandling our Steinway D from the
south nave aisle and across uneven ledger stones on to a temporary platform in the crossing involves hiring muscled
experts who cost over £500. The pianist then faces vacant ranks of pews that seem embarrassingly empty when
audiences are small. A more intimate performing zone could be created from a raised dais with seating in the round
for perhaps 150, and plenty of room behind for a few more when the young pianist’s cousins and aunts arrive at the
last minute.
Worshippers, performers and their audiences plus pilgrims and tourists all vie for space in a large building where,
paradoxically, space is unnaturally limited. Recall that the Abbey welcomes over 400,000 visitors a year, only a few
of whom come to see the pews. Visitors squeeze through spaces between pews and walls as they negotiate a way
round 700 empty seats. An open nave would get rid of the rat runs that all must follow and the pinch points where,
at corners of pew blocks, people form into irritable multi-lingual clumps. The risk of opening things out would be a
hectic noisy atmosphere and this would be countered by nudging visitors with furnishings, or perhaps patterns on
the floor. An open nave could be subtly zoned, as at Prague Cathedral, to, say, temporarily section off maintenance
work from tourists or to more permanently define contemplative areas.
The need to do something about our nave pews has been long felt and in April 2009 the PCC agreed the following
statement: “We desire seating suitable for the ministry of the Abbey in the 21st Century. The PCC is open to the
36
possibility of accepting a design that replaces pews with cathedral-style chairs but this must be a consequence of an
integrated design of floor, heating, and storage of any chairs when they are not required.” In the five years since
that commitment was made, plans have firmed up and within the Abbey community there is broad agreement on
the need to replace flooring and heating and to remove the pews.
The practicalities of pew replacement are: new high quality chairs from a manufacturer such as Howe Furniture,
Chorus’s Theo range or Luke Hughes; establishing a clear material relationship with the Corporation stalls and a
sense of belonging to the architecture of the Abbey; and the provision of kneelers and hymn book shelves to be
determined when the furniture supplier is decided. Storage of chairs has been a major consideration and our
intention is that this will be via a lift in the Jackson extension down to vaults due to be opened south of the Abbey
after the first phase of the redevelopment. Stackable new pews are another option under consideration and a
number of styles are available.
There are persuasive conservation arguments for retaining the pews as an important component of Gilbert Scott’s
vision of medievalism. The arguments against keeping them can also be couched in terms of tradition. Pews were an
innovation of the Reformation and their inclusion in the nave post-dates whatever the original intentions of the
Abbey founders might have been. In 1836, some three decades before the Scott works, Bath Abbey became a
Simeon Trust parish church and it is squarely within an Anglican tradition that the gospel is preached in ways to link
with the culture. The culture has moved from Victorian demarcations that prevailed as much in domestic kitchens
and servants’ quarters as they did in church layouts. Tradition cannot be rooted in fixity alone and we need to move
on. Our need now is for a less constrained and defined Abbey space towards one that fits with our own current
norms and the norms we anticipate for the future.
Dom Gregory Dix has had a deep influence on the way we conduct the Eucharist and in putting worship in the
context of traditions stretching back to Hippolytus in the 3rd century AD. Dix also informs our philosophy of
extending the Christian ministry and standing against a tide of secularism where increasing numbers remain at a
distance from the church. The architectural openness we require is alluded to in the introduction to The Shape of
the Liturgy. “Worship,” Dix wrote in 1945, “is a mysterious but also a very direct and commonplace human activity.
It is meant for the plain man to do, to whom it is an intimate and sacred but none the less quite workaday affair.”
37
For and against pew removal
The issues in favour of retaining nave pews are that they are:
… well-suited to Book of Common Prayer Holy Communion services
… an intrinsic part of the Gilbert Scott restoration
… a fine example of William Brock machine-tooled workmanship
… an inbuilt mechanism to subdue hubbub
… a way of regulating the flow of visitors around the building
… convenient, requiring no storage
The issues against the retention of the nave pews are that they are:
… ill-suited to many contemporary forms of worship
… a rigid structure thwarting varieties of seating
… an inhibition to processions
… creating problems for disabled access
… uncomfortable to sit in
… discouraging service and concert attendances
… restricting the flow of visitors around the building
… an obstruction to exhibitions that must be shoe-horned into nooks and crannies
… barriers to routine cleaning and to maintenance of lighting
38
A week in the life of Bath Abbey
Bath Abbey’s need for adaptable space is demonstrated in our week in the life of the Abbey below with its pointers
toward how our day-to-day needs could be better met were the nave to be less constrained.
SUNDAY
Services on any normal Sunday involve both full choir and contemporary music group. There is a mixture of formal
addresses from the pulpit and more conversational preaching styles and regular use of a large screen.
Holy Communion, 08:00
Attended by an average of 40 worshippers, this follows the Book of Common Prayer, is at the east end and works
well as set out. Of course it does. That is what the Abbey is laid out for.
Parish Communion, 09:30
Our main Common Worship service attracts around 200 people and is severely constrained. We are unable to
gather round a table in the presence of Christ. The lack of room is close to embarrassing, particularly when trying to
do anything involving children in the service.
BCP Matins, 11:15
Again, it is difficult to do anything imaginative with 200 worshippers confined to a single mode of seating. The sense
of timeless celebration that informs the Abbey’s soaring architecture is sometimes grounded and constrained by
arrangements at floor level.
Choral Evensong, 15:30
Works well as set out for around 150 worshippers.
Informal worship, 18:30
It is difficult to impossible to establish the relaxed atmosphere best suited to our informal evening worship.
MONDAY
Morning Prayer, 8:30am
Evening Prayer, 5:30pm
Our daily morning and evening prayer could be more fluid in format and its location could move around an open
nave with a greater variety of mood and ceremony.
Maintenance of lighting
Repairing lights at clerestory level currently involves five people erecting a scaffold tower within the pews. A cherry
picker travelling along a clear nave could do the job more safely, more cheaply, more quickly and less labour
intensively.
Prayer evenings
Pews form barriers to group work during city-wide prayer evenings that attract 200-300 people.
TUESDAY
Morning Prayer, 8:30am
Evening Prayer, 5:30pm
39
Removal of scaffolding
Repairing lights is predictable only it that it usually takes longer than allowed for and scaffold towers sometimes
remain overnight with the consequent expense and inconvenience.
Exhibitions
Art exhibitions are restricted to south transept for a unified space or are put round the Abbey walls where it is
difficult to stand back for a longer view. Far better would be space for installations on screens in the centre of the
nave that could be moved to the aisles during larger services or performance.
Filming
Film and TV crews are attracted to the Abbey, but they present an obstacle to the flow of visitors around the building
particularly when filming in the crossing.
WEDNESDAY
Morning Prayer, 8:30am
Evening Prayer, 5:30pm
Young Music Makers School visit
Large numbers of school children and young people visit the Abbey and what they are able to do is constrained.
Dancing is not possible? Games have to be sedate and processions are sedate. Two abreast and mind the pew ends
THURSDAY
Morning Prayer, 8:30am
Holy Communion, 11:00am
Evening Prayer, 5:30pm
Lunchtime lectures
When held, they are given from the front, though often to small audiences who could be sectioned off from the flow
of visitors if seating was more adaptable.
Concerts
On Thursday and Saturdays at roughly fortnightly intervals throughout the year, major concerts open the Abbey
doors to a broad audience. Moving the staging across uneven floor and around pews is difficult and time-consuming
and always runs the risk of bumping and scraping Tudor stonework at the base of pillars. Audience access is clumsy
and, as with services, the disabled are marginalised.
FRIDAY
Holy Communion, 8:30am
Evening Prayer, 5:30pm
Friday night informal service, 21:00 until late
Informal services, or meetings, or conversations with strangers are hobbled by the pews that stand in the way of the
unpredictable impromptu congregations who might take something from late night informal services. As with so
many other activities that take place on the Abbey floor, meeting people face-to-face on equal terms would be a
boon that would link the commonplace to the sacred.
40
Dinners
Formal dinners, whether for Abbey volunteers or civic receptions or charity dinners are currently limited to 140
people once the choir stalls are dragged to one side. An open nave larger than the Assembly Rooms or the Guildhall
would hold enormous potential for celebratory meals of all sorts.
SATURDAY
Tourism
The day with the most visitors squeezing through narrow passageways between pew ends and walls. To repeat
some statistics, the Abbey welcomes over 400,000 visitors a year, and on any given day, 1,000 people on average
squeeze through spaces between pews and walls as they negotiate a way past 700 empty seats.
Weddings
Weddings are floor-level services and the Abbey is good at them. We conduct an increasing number of weddings
and would like to follow emerging current practice by allowing for a greater variety of ways of performing the
service.
41
AFTERWORD
We end with quotations on change, tradition and future possibilities. The first quotation was supplied by our Vicar
Pastor, The Reverend Claire Robson.
“If history gives us a place to stand, a sense of being earthed and grounded, this is not to be confused with
being static. The Benedictine vows illustrate this well when they establish the paradox of keeping stability in
tension with conversatio morum, which is roughly translated a the commitment to change, to the ongoing
journey and whatever may lie ahead. It is thus a question of holding the balance. While we need the past, we
must not let ourselves become imprisoned by it or allow it to become an idol. Martin Smith expresses this
well when he sets out the issue.
He says: ‘Faithfulness to tradition does not mean mere perpetuation or copying of ways from the past but a
creative recovery of the past as a source of inspiration and guidance in our faithfulness to God’s name.’
Martin Smith was then the superior of the Cowley Fathers in the United States. When they decided to revise
their rule they saw it as “an expression of confidence in the living continuity of tradition, an act of inner
appropriation and re-articulation.’”
Esther de Waal, Seeking Life: The Baptismal Invitation of the Rule of Saint Benedict, Canterbury Press,
2009
The final words go to our Rector, the Reverend Prebendary Edward Mason:
“Consider this project over a one hundred year time frame. We think future generations will thank us for
space created and so we are identifying every available area where we might expand. At this stage, we are
fighting for space and once we know what is available, we will be in a position to commit to some of the
current explorations and possibilities.”
“An obvious example of a perceived need for change, and the choice of appropriate solutions, comes from
the Victorian period. At that time the congregation required better visibility, some heat in winter, artificial
light to read orders of service, and comfortable seating for all – not just the few. The solutions were radical
and appropriate: pews, chandeliers, central heating with heat rising from cast-iron gratings, and the open
view down the nave. Today the Abbey serves a large and diverse community and, once again, contemporary
demands oblige us to find equally appropriate and, if necessary, radical solutions.”
42