Arron Orients the Crew

If crane days were measured by weight, last Thursday’s crane day would be our biggest to date. East Derry’s belfry, bell and double lantern weighed 43,400 pounds, not including the rigging. The crane day might also be the biggest in terms of scope. Since 2013, we’ve lifted and moved the church onto a new foundation, rebuilt the undercarriage, replaced two tower posts, 60′ in length, and disassembled, reproduced and rebuilt the belfry and lanterns. This crane day was the culmination of more than five years of nearly continuous site-work following more than two years of fundraising, assessment and preparation. Brian, Dave, Tom and Dan have persevered through a lot of guano. Paul Lindemann and the rest of the building committee stuck with the project after the scope and cost ballooned past our earliest expectations. From the start, they’ve stayed rooted in the history of Nutfield, the colonial settlement that built the church. On Thursday, the entire crew was there, along with a few news crews, the building committee and good crowd of East Derry residents.

Scott Tightens the Rigging Clamps

On Wednesday afternoon, the crane and crew installed the rigging steel. Four steel I-beams were inserted in a grid beneath a ring of ledgers bolted to the belfry posts. The belfry posts extend deep into the tower, 12′ below the tower plates. They emerge 15′ above the tower plate. Stationed on the ground, the belfry, lower lantern, upper lantern and mast are almost as tall as the base tower, rising to just 6′ shy of the tower plates.

Rigging a tower this tall is a challenge. We want the straps to be long enough so they won’t bind on the tower, but they can’t be so long that we run out of cable on the crane. Our first arrangement of rigging straps was doubly wrong: the straps bound on the belfry baluster and were too long overall; the crane operator couldn’t retract the cable enough to get the stretch out of the rigging. Fortunately, by reversing the upper and lower straps, we were able to clear the balustrade and stay short of the crane’s reach.

Belfry Roof, Urns, Fans, Columns, and Balustrade

After the crane took a little weight, we dismantled the front wall of staging and swung the belfry away from the church and the rear staging. The belfry had been built tight to the tower, and the staging had been built tight to the belfry in order to hang the trim and apply copper to the bell deck and lanterns. Brian and Dave planned the restoration so that nearly all the finish work could be done “on the ground” before the belfry and lanterns were lifted into place. It’s a lot easier to fit elaborate trim 20′ – 40′ above the ground rather than 60′- 80′. We needed to break down the staging and swing away from the tower so that the belfry would clear the building on its way up.

Belfry in Flight

The lift from the ground to the belfry was slow and steady. Half the crew climbed the staging to the tower plates, and the other half climbed the stairs to the belfry bed timbers, 12′ below. Once the post feet were inserted past the plates, the bed timber crew made minor adjustments to the mortises and pried the post feet a quarter of an inch this way and that. When the post tenons were seated in the bed timbers, the overhangs at the bell deck just kissed the belfry plates.

Belfry in Place

There’s still more to do. The cornice trim needs to be hung at the top of the tower, at the edge of the bell deck, and the copper roofing must be extended over the drip edge on the cornice. A second finish coat of paint will be applied. But regardless of the punch list items, the crane day Thursday was a huge achievement. The crew and building committee worked together to prepare for this day, and the celebratory ease of the day was a result of their strenuous efforts.

We had some excellent news coverage of the day. The Eagle Tribune and Union Leader interviewed longtime parishioners and the folks who made the restoration possible. Watch the lift on WMUR, here and here.