Graylingwell Chapel

Historic Graylinwell Chapel gets no stress makeover

Graylingwell Chapel, originally built as a chapel to the nearby asylum near Chichester, is being refurbished sympathetically to form a central community focal point of the largest carbon-neutral residential development in the UK.

Graylingwell Chapel was constructed in the 1890s to serve as the chapel for the West Sussex County Lunatic Asylum, later renamed Graylingwell Hospital. The chapel was designed by Sir Arthur Blomfield and Sons, renowned for their exceptional work in Church Construction and Restoration.

ARP aluminium guttering has been chosen to provide the chapel with a practical, eco-friendly roof drainage system while remaining sympathetic to the heritage of its design and sensitive to the historic fabric of the building.

Graylingwell Park is an eco-residential development of 750 new homes in Sussex built on an 85-acre conservation site that was originally the grounds of the nineteenth-century asylum.

The Chapel remains almost entirely in its original form, with minimal alteration undertaken since its construction. At its peak, Graylingwell accommodated over 1000 patients, and the chapel was at the centre of this community.

The newly refurbished chapel aims to conserve and enhance this unique building to become the centre of the community again, reconfiguring the space to be flexible and welcoming to community groups.

The chapel is being restored to a design by Adam Richards Architects for Chichester Community Development Trust. The external work, including installing new, modern guttering, is being carried out by roofline specialists at County Gutters. They chose aluminium guttering in a heritage style from ARP to protect the delicate fabric of the Grade II listed façade, including downland flint cobble walls.

“We chose to fit aluminium guttering because, as a modern material, it requires very little ongoing maintenance to stress the façade of the chapel,” says County’s Simon Wheatley. “But more importantly, it is so lightweight compared to other materials; it does not strain the fabric of this historic building.”

County Gutters, who only use ARP guttering on their projects, chose 150mm beaded Sentinel half-round guttering with a heritage finish for Graylingwell Chapel, complemented with ARP’s cast aluminium Colonnade downpipes.

ARP’s cast aluminium rainwater products are traditionally sand cast from an aluminium alloy in traditional profiles, sizes, and textures to give the full visual effect and aesthetics of cast iron.

Colonnade aluminium downpipes, with traditional-style collars and ears, make the perfect style choice for heritage projects but, in line with today’s environmental standards, are made from 100% recycled aluminium and are 100% recyclable.

ARP’s Sentinel extruded aluminium Deep Flow Half Round gutters are available in various sizes to cope with rainwater runoff from larger roofs on commercial, leisure, and larger residential projects.

The Sentinel aluminium guttering system comes in a range of sizes with a full complement of angles, outlets, stop ends, and brackets to complete the job.

Sentinel guttering is also available in modern ogee and vintage ogee profiles, with the ARP Snap-fit system on the traditional ogee version for a quick, simple and dependable fit.