The Vestry Hall refurbished

ONE OF BOURNE'S historic religious buildings that has served the community for more than 100 years has been converted for use as a luxury home. After a chequered history, the Vestry Hall in North Street faced an uncertain future until bought by Caroline Glithero and her husband Paul Nicholson who have spent the past five years planning and implementing their dream project that has finally come to fruition.

The result is that a building that might have been lost to the town has been transformed into a main residence on two floors accessed by staircases at each end with five bedrooms, four bathrooms, a lounge, dining room, study, gymnasium, kitchen and sun balcony with a self-contained, fully equipped annexe for holiday letting. But despite the major alterations that have been made, the Victorian chapel remains outwardly unchanged while many of the interior features have been retained.

The hall was built as a chapel in 1867 by the Calvinist Baptist movement, financed by the congregation through voluntary subscriptions. It was a solid construction of red brick and blue slate with room for 300 people but the initial enthusiasm did not last and by 1890 it had been forced to close because of mounting debts and for several years the building stood empty and disused and in 1899 it was bought by H Company, the 2nd Battalion, the Lincolnshire Regiment, for use as a drill hall, gymnasium and clubroom.

The unit remained in occupation until 1914 when the hall was sold at public auction for £340 to the trustees of the late Thomas Carlton, a former draper, of North Street, and made available to the Abbey Church for vestry meetings and other social activities. From that date, the building was administered by the parochial church council and became known as the Vestry Hall, the name which survives to this day.

When the Great War broke out in 1914, the hall was commandeered by the War Office and turned into a military hospital for casualties from the front and by the end of the war in 1918, almost 950 wounded servicemen had been cared for, mainly by local medical staff under the direction of Dr John Gilpin (1864-1943) who was subsequently awarded the MBE for his work.

The Red Cross and the Home Guard used the chapel for various purposes during the Second World War of 1939-45 and after that it became a venue for events such as concerts, drama productions and sporting activities before being sold to Bourne United Charities in 1961. The Hereward Youth Club used it until 1986 when it was sold as a commercial property to a local shopkeeper in 1996 but by this time the hall was deteriorating through poor maintenance, eventually becoming unsuitable for public use and in 2003 it was again put on the market.

Caroline and Paul were mindful of the chapel’s history and anxious from the start to ensure that it was not forgotten in their plans. “We felt it imperative not to spoil the character of the building, especially the frontage, and although this presented many small challenges, I think we have managed to achieve that objective”, said Caroline. “To all appearances, this is still the Vestry Hall and it is only when you step inside that you realise it is no longer used for services but for modern day to day living.”

The property deal also included No 58 North Street, the retail shop and office premises at the front of the hall, the downstairs being used as offices for Caroline’s accountancy business while the couple lived in the flat upstairs as the conversion work proceeded. “This has been very much a hands on project”, said Caroline, “and I found myself being consulted by the contractors at all hours, sometimes even making snap decisions while in my dressing gown. But the final result has far outweighed any inconveniences and we have both discovered that conversion is the cheapest and most effective way of getting a lovely home.”

No expense has been spared in buying the materials and hiring the craftsmen for the refurbishment and Caroline and Paul used local tradesmen and suppliers whenever possible but also sought out bargains from several sources which produced remarkable deals that now have pride of place in their home. The most notable of these was the purchase of fourteen solid mahogany doors from a large house in Surrey which were bought on eBay, the Internet auction web site, and a complete bedroom suite of furniture from Richardsons, the auction salerooms here in Bourne. Another excellent buy were a number of pews which came from a church in Hampshire, also on eBay, which provided the mahogany for the staircase aprons and window sills.

The traditional red bricks used to build the hall were most probably made by Charles Eldred, a local brick and tile manufacturer, who lived at North Lodge, Bourne, and was also a member of the original chapel congregation who donated the land, and they were saved whenever alterations were made to the walls and then incorporated into those sections around new windows and doors to blend in with the originals.

Another feature that has been preserved is part of the parquet floor that survived the tramp of feet from countless generations, finished in a herringbone pattern of pine blocks which were lifted one by one and a large section re-laid as a bedroom floor. “This part of the renovation was a particular problem and Paul spent around two months on cleaning, sanding, smoothing and sealing the wood blocks”, said Caroline, “but seeing the final appearance it was well worth it.”

Restoration work also revealed the baptismal pool underneath the floor of the chapel, used for total immersion during services by the Calvinists in the 19th century, and rather than destroy it the couple decided to cover it over, so preserving another part of the chapel’s history.

The bronze plaque recording the hall’s use as a military hospital during the Great War which was removed for safe keeping by Bourne United Charities has also been returned by the trustees to the new owners of the Vestry Hall who have given it pride of place over the front door in the entrance foyer, a fitting touch to a most worthy restoration project.