This blog leaves a lot out. We can’t give our projects their full due here while giving them their full due out there. I’ve been especially remiss with regards to East Derry. The First Parish Project has been in progress since 2012 and includes the replacement of the undercarriage, moving the building onto a new foundation and rebuilding a belfry, lantern and spire. In the video above, we are replacing two continuous 60 foot posts in the standing tower. There was a lot of back and forth about dismantling the tower, but ultimately, we left it up because housed inside are the intricate mechanics of a historic pipe organ. Reassembly of the organ rivaled reassembly of the tower for level of complexity and expense. While we’ve been remiss in coverage of this long hard road, Paul Lindemann, a dedicated leader of the building committee, has been documenting the process on his website: Nutfield History. Paul made this sweet time-lapse video of the posts being inserted. The video may condense the day into just over a minute, but the installation of these posts was the culmination of months of documentation, design, demolition and rigging. In order to stabilize the building, the crew essentially built a skeleton tower inside the existing tower. It was big. The entire crew should be commended for their hard work, determination and fortitude, but especially Brian Cox, Dave Ewing, Dan Boyle, Tom Glynn and Seth.

It just so happens that the crew is delivering the belfry frame to the church today. Each of the full length belfry rafters are 12″x 12″x 14′ and weigh in at around 1200 lbs. We’ll keep you posted.