St Mary the Virgin, Chiddingstone

The Parish Church of St Mary The Virgin at Chiddingstone in Kent has completed a vibrant lighting scheme

The £45,000 scheme, designed in consultation with Fireflix and Churchwarden Nigel Lucas, was funded solely by donations. This included the complete removal of the incumbent and old-fashioned incumbent lighting system which was installed in 1936. The lighting comprised chandelier-type fittings hanging from each arch, which did not provide suitable ambient light for the whole Church, were very obtrusive and detracted from the beautiful architectural features and details.

The brief was to replace this lighting with a high performance, multi-functional, modern computer-controlled scheme. This needed to have preset lighting levels to meet the various requirements of different types of service held within the Church. In addition, certain features of the 13^th Century church, such as the sandstone font manufactured in 1628, the 18^th Century chandelier, the 14^th Century window and the famous “vinegar” bible all needed to be more effectively illuminated because they attract many visitors.

This need to balance the provision of ambient lighting sufficient for the congregation with the highlighting of important architectural and historical features meant that a very carefully thought out scheme had to be in planned.

To make the lighting unobtrusive but effective, it was decided to use over 100 black remote spotlights to line the perimeter of the pitched roof with brass spotlights to illuminate the interior of the arches. The whole scheme is run by a controller which has several preset lighting levels as well as manual override to adjust the lux levels as needed.

Churchwarden Nigel Lucas explains, “This lighting installation has revolutionised St Mary’s and has proved extremely popular with parishioners and visitors alike. The previous chandeliers which hung from the arches did not really provide sufficient light, and we could not alter the levels of light they produced. The new lights are spectacular. Now for the first time, it is a pleasure to watch visitors sit down and look up and around. The wonderful pitched roof is dramatically lit, and perfect illumination accentuates the beauty of the arches. Members from other Churches have come to see the lighting and their response has been fantastic. The ability to change the levels of light is marvellous. For baptisms, weddings and Sunday services, we now have sympathetic lighting schemes to enhance any occasion”.