The refurbishment at the Southdown Methodist Church was the result of twelve years of thought and planning by the trustees. The aim was to keep the church open as a centre both for the work of the Southdown Whiteway Church and Community Partnership and for the use of the local community. After years of failed schemes and blind alleys, we were able to proceed through the generous offer from Oldfield Park Methodists (now called Horizon) to sell their church buildings and move, as a congregation, to Southdown.
The refurbishment involved the strengthening of the church tower, roofing over the space between the church nave and the main hall; roof and wall insulation and double glazing throughout. It also included environmentally friendly air source heat pumps, additional toilets, refurbished kitchen and full decoration.
A large part of the cost was met from the sale of Oldfield Park, but we also received considerable financial support from the North East Somerset and Bath Methodist Circuit, the Methodist Church nationally, many trusts and businesses and a large number of individual donors. To all of these we are very grateful.