All building’s need to consider the modern needs of our society and provide fair access for all. Churches have to follow these new guidelines regardless of the style they were built in. St Johns Church disabled access solution is something that can be rolled out to many other venues.

St John’s Church in Thornham Rochdale is a good example of this. The Parishioners have had to struggle for years to gain access to the Building with wheel chairs. The Church has a slightly raised aspect and all entry points had steps.

St Johns Church disabled access solution was to build a combined ramp and stepped access to the main doors. The ramp and steps also had to be in keeping with the beautiful stone built 1906 Church. Luckily the Church had a large car park to accommodate the long ramp.

We also incorporated textured tactile paving slabs at the beginning of the ramp and around the new steps to help the partially sighted understand the hazards ahead. The ramp was finished off with a painted stainless steel handrail for the support of the parishioners.

With the help of lottery funding St Johns were able to afford a bespoke solution made from Crosland Hill buff stone.

The second part of the project was to repair the window mullions on the North and West sides. Most of the existing mullions had broken due to the corrosion of the iron fixings, which is a common problem in Churches. We also replaced some tracery pieces to the West window which had worn away due to weathering.