A FIRST draft of plans for refurbishing Holy Trinity, Minchinhampton, will be available for public view at a special open morning at the parish church on Saturday, March 5.

The plans include installing underfloor heating and replacing pews with more flexible seating to improve comfort for the congregation and other groups – from all sectors of society – which use the impressive space.

The proposed works have been made possible thanks to a major legacy from David Thomas, granted through the David Thomas Trust Fund, who was a valued member of the congregation until his death in 2012.

Minchinhampton Rector the Rev Helen Bailey, churchwardens, and members of the group overseeing the project will be on hand from 10am until 12noon to answer questions, and there will be a short presentation at 10.15am.

“The open morning is part of a full consultation process, both with the congregation and the wider community, to come to a communal vision and understanding of what is right for the new-look church,” Rev Bailey said.

“We aim to make the inside space more flexible and comfortable for services, as well as for events such as big music concerts. Fixed pews make it difficult to fit bigger audiences in and lead to many understandable complaints about uncomfortable seating!

“At the same time, we will be able to improve issues around damp, acoustics and heating.”

The last major renovations at Holy Trinity took place in Victorian times, when the ancient nave and chancel were rebuilt and a new, larger east window installed. The oldest part of the existing church – the site of which dates back to the Normans – consists of the two 14th century transepts and tower.

The current plans are being drawn up by specialist church conservationist Antony Feltham-King, official architect at Gloucester Cathedral, who has also been involved with improvements to medieval St John the Baptist in the centre of Cirencester.

Work is due to begin in Minchinhampton in April 2017.

“We would encourage anyone with any interest whatsoever to come along to the open morning,” Rev Bailey said.

“This is the first time the plans will be available to view and we stress that they are a working draft to which we are inviting response. We would love to show people what we hope to do to make our church a better and more flexible space for everybody.”

The plans will remain on display for several months in the church in Bell Lane, Minchinhampton.