Marhamchurch Village Hall, Cornwall

Marhamchurch village hall using Touchstones Insulead glazing system

INSULEAD® fixed units · STEELYTE® OPENING CASEMENTS · APPLIED SQUARE LEADING

The Building

Marhamchurch Village Hall or The Bray was built in 1913 as a community resource for the Church of England. It was underused until a village group decided to inaugurate the venue for wider village use. In 2006 the Diocese of Truro granted the village’s board of trustees a 35 year lease on the building. They then embarked on a programme of repair and improvements. After securing various grants they approached Touchstone to replace their windows which were in a very poor state of repair. We were delighted to be a part of the restoration of this fantastic building.

The Brief

The board of trustees approached Touchstone Glazing to replace the single glazed leaded lights and badly rusted steel windows.

The aim was to replace all the leaded lights with our square leaded Insulead frameless glazing system and the rusted steel windows with our Steelyte stainless steel opening casements. All of the current windows were in a desperate state and the board of Trustees expressed a desire for double glazing to help with energy saving for the building. As the brief called for the windows to appear as closely to the original windows as possible.

The building was currently being used by numerous village groups such as Brownies, keep fit classes and theatrical events and so the new glazing had to be of strong construction. The opening casements needed to be easily accessed for ventilation and the fitting needed to work around the various groups diaries.

The Specification

Double glazed leaded light replicas of the originals
Stainless steel opening casements with the profile to be as close to the original as possible
Easy accessed opening casements
Use of traditional materials
The fitting to work with the various group’s diaries

The Solution

Following an initial meeting, the brief and a site visit we suggested our Insulead® system and Steelyte® opening casements as a way of installing double glazing leaded lights into Marhamchurch Village Hall.

The Insulead® was fitted using our own design of clip that is plugged directly into the masonry and then we pointed using a sand and mortar mix in keeping with the building. The Steelye® opening casements were secured with stainless steel screws and sealed with a modified polymer.

The Response

The windows were virtually indistinguishable from the design of the originals and were seen as a great success by the villages and groups that used the hall. All works were completed on time and to the satisfaction of the Board of Trustees.

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