Acoustic Solution for Wharton and Cleggs Lane Church and Community Centre
In 2014 the churches of Wharton and Cleggs Lane decided to form a partnership to protect each other from closure that looked imminent if they remained on their own. Since forming the partnership, the Church has flourished and is now well known for its Community Cafe, Foodbank, community allotments, nature trail, Men's Shed, befriending scheme and brass band concerts and is also used regularly by local community groups, sports clubs and Local Authority Organisations.
The old Cleggs Lane chapel was in a very poor state or repair so the decision was taken to build a new church and community centre on the Cleggs Lane site. After much planning and fund raising and overcoming many challenges, the old chapel was demolished and a new modern multi purpose church was built. It was finally completed in mid 2020, during the Covid lockdown and it wasn’t until 2021 that the new church was able to be used.
The new church proved to be a great success but it was soon apparent that there were serious acoustic issues in certain spaces within their new building, specifically, the café and main hall. The poor acoustics were affecting all of the guests and volunteers that were using the space.
Once the decision was taken that something must be done Church Trustee, Keith Mann, contacted acoustic absorption experts, SRS Ltd, to see if they could help. After an initial discussion with a member of the SRS Ltd technical team a free of charge site visit was arranged so where detailed measurements and notes on the spaces were taken. Upon entering the information into the SRS Ltd acoustic modelling program SRS notices that both the café and the main hall has very poor reverberation times. SRS Ltd Technical Director, Richard Sherwood, commented:
“It was found that the café had a reverberation time of 3.12 seconds and the main hall a reverberation time of 3.63 seconds. Both of which would have been very uncomfortable to operate in when busy and it was clear that our Sonata absorption products needed to be introduced.”
Using their software and the information gathered on site, SRS Ltd were able to accurately specify exactly the amount of absorption required in each area to cure the problem and design a layout of how the panels should be arranged in the rooms. All of the information was presented to the church along with itemised quotations for the work and SRS were instructed to proceed with the solution. SRS installed their suspended Sonata Aurio panels in both areas and reduced the reverberation times down to 0.97 seconds for the café and 1.22 seconds for the main hall – both of which represented a huge improvement in the acoustics of the rooms.
Following the installation, Keith Mann, from the church, commented:
“We are delighted with the finished product. It has made a massive difference to the acoustics, both in the main church hall and the café/entrance area. It also looks good, much to the relief of many of our older members. The fitter did a great job completing the task over the weekend (including a very early start on Sunday morning) enabling us to hold the church service on Sunday.”
If you have a noise issue in your church or village hall and would like a free consultation please get in touch to see how SRS can help with soundproofing and sound absorption. You can email info@soundreduction.co.uk or call 01204 380074 or fill in the simple 3 Step Estimator form online for your FREE report and quote: https://www.soundreduction.co.uk/3se/.
