Heating project

In 1893 St Remigius’s Church was rebuilt and provided with heating for the first time. You can still see three chimneys, one above the lady chapel, one at the northwest corner of the nave, and one above the vestry. These would have served three stoves, probably Gurney Stoves. In 1940 the church council (PCC) put a central heating system into Clawson church to make it constantly warm and welcoming over the winter months. There was a large coke boiler at the west end of the church, and a loop of large bore pipes with radiators though which the water slowly circulated by gravity. The boiler was lit in October and kept ticking over until March. About 40 years ago, natural gas arrived in the village, the boiler was on its last legs, as was the stoker, so a gas boiler and pump were put in, but it was too expensive to leave on all the time, so the church was only warmed for Sundays. The pipework then started cracking and was patched up by an ever increasing number of rubber-lined clamps. It has all now been swept away. The floors have been dug up the floor, 2,300 cubic feet of foamed glass (mainly wine bottles we are told) has been laid with heating coils over, fed by a small modern boiler, and finished with new Ancaster stone flags. The project started after Christmas 2025 and is now finished, bar final testing. Incidental to it, a nearly complete electric rewire had to be done.

With the wonders of insulation we will be able to warm the church again throughout the week for the same amount of gas that the 40-year-old boiler used just for Sundays, but the project has cost over £200,000.