Look: Fire ravaged Bethel Church latest in Newport

In recent memory, the large piece of machinery has towered over all but the tallest of buildings in the city from its position on Stow Hill, where it was being used to bring a much loved building back into use.

And now, with progress being made to bring Bethel Church back to its former glory, the crane has been removed, to allow for the next phase of redevelopment work to be carried out.

As a result, just days before Christmas, and partly delayed due to the late autumnal storms Arwen and Barra causing unsafe wind speeds, the crane was taken down.

This operation, along with a quite-literal overview of the project, was captured in stunning form by contractors Henstaff, who commissioned a drone to fly high above the dismantling of the crane.

How did we get here?

In June 2018, Bethel Community Church was devastated by a huge fire.

The fire, which started in the neighbouring Zanzibar nightclub before spreading into the church, caused devastation, both physically to the building, and to those who actively used its facilities, which at the time was a congregation of around 200 people.

But, the damage was met with defiance, with work being carried out to restore the church ongoing in the years that have followed.

An overhead view of how the church is currently looking

Now, in the fourth calendar year since the blaze, the project is said to be nearing completion.

Andrew Cleverly, senior pastor at Bethel Community Church said: “We are very excited that we are getting to the final stages of the rebuild. We are now concentrating on choosing the internal furnishings like carpet and chairs etc.

“One of the new developments that we are looking forward to is a coffee shop which will be open to the public and other areas of the new church building which will be for community use, such as IT suite and the auditorium for hire.

“This is going to be a 21st century church within the shell of an 19th century building.”

Along with the coffee shop, the revamped church will include a 400-seater auditorium, with a gallery area, altar stage, and baptismal pool.

The city skyline looks radically different without the crane towering over it (Credit: Henstaff Construction)

Meanwhile, a spokesman for Henstaff Construction said: “The external works and masonry repairs are progressing well albeit affected by the recent cold and stormy weather. The Timber glulam beam roof structure portal has been installed and braced and will be visible for the next few weeks until the slate roof tiling starts.”

“The scheduled stone repairs have been completed to the east elevation already and rebuilding and repair works have started on the North Gable wall including new lintels installation. New bat and bird boxes will be installed as works progress.

“Internally the majority of the steel has been installed and now that the crane has been removed the infill sections can be completed and allow for the internal structure to be completed fully. A new lift pit has been cored out of the solid rock under the church and new damp proofing has been installed. The block work lift shaft walls within the main tower are progressing up the building to be able to provide full access to all areas for everybody.”