Projects
FURNITURE MAKERS
Project – St Thomas of Canterbury Church, Goring-on-Thames.
'St Thomas of Canterbury Parochial Church Council is absolutely delighted with the new Church furniture which has been designed and made by Bates and Lambourne as part of a major re-ordering and extension project. The quality of the furniture throughout is superb, and the flexibility of the furniture design means that the Norman Church is now fully accessible and suitable for a wide range of appropriate uses.' Rev. Mark Blamey, Vicar of the United Benefice of Goring and Streatley with South Stoke in the Diocese of Oxford.
During 2009, we were delighted to be involved in the refurbishment of the church of St Thomas of Canterbury in Goring-on-Thames. Bates and Lambourne’s part in their ‘St Thomas Builds for Tomorrow’ development programme was the design and manufacture of the new furniture for the church, including all seating, choir furniture and the communion table. Particularly satisfying in this project was the opportunity to work directly with the clients from the outset. It became apparent from the initial consultations that there was a split in opinion amongst parishioners between those who preferred pews and those who preferred single seats. Our approach was to develop seating based around a single seat unit that could be extended to double and triple seats which could be connected in any order to give maximum versatility, whilst also having the feel of pews when linked together.
To an extent, a project such as this designs itself. The practical requirements of the furniture, especially that it all could be stacked when not in use and that it would all link together in use, put constraints upon the outcome from the beginning. Of course, the requirement for reasonable stability and comfort is more important in a chair than in most other furniture, and this also leads to certain logical conclusions; if you can design a good chair, everything else is easy. A preference for using solid oak was expressed during initial consultation, partly due to its greater durability when compared with leather or fabric. Also plain wood has an aesthetic durability that is often lacking in upholstery.
All the timber for the project was grown in the United Kingdom, with much of it sawn from the grounds of Powys Castle, where it had been planked and drying for many years. It proved some of the cleanest and most stable material we have had the pleasure to work with.
Large projects like this often give opportunities to broaden our own practical knowledge base. In this case, the keyhole connectors were manufactured especially for the project; whilst functionally similar components can be bought mass-produced, we were unable to source any that were both sufficiently robust and aesthetically acceptable. By working with a local engineering firm we were able to develop an excellent component that integrated perfectly into the furniture, complementing its design rather than being a functional, but ugly, afterthought.
Of all the furniture in a church, a communion table, or an altar, is the piece imbued with the greatest significance, and is really the focal point of the building and the activities therein. By the time the communion table was discussed, the pews and chairs were already in manufacture. It was therefore logical to integrate its design into the general scheme, whilst also bringing in some extra elements such as the wedged through-tenoning of the frame, which emphasise its particular status within the church, as well as adhering to the Arts and Crafts tenets of honesty of construction, and decoration through function.
The success of the refurbishment of St Thomas’ Church has meant an increase in congregation that requires a second phase of work on further seating and other pieces, a great tribute to the skill and commitment of all involved.
St Thomas of Canterbury Church, Goring-on-Thames Gallery
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