News, Manchester
Work has almost been completed on an restoration of Wigan’s only Grade I-listed building.
St Wilfrid’s Church in Standish, which has been a landmark in the borough for more than 160 years, is undergoing repairs to the spire.
The Victorian-era masonry had suffered cracking due to rust from the ironwork inside the structure, and an internal timber frame had been damaged by water.
The weather vane and the church clock have also been restored and reinstalled.
Repairs to the church spire began in February and the restoration is expected to finish in the autumn.
Becky Gilbert-Rule, from Patrick Wilson Architects, said: “These projects do not come up every day.
“We knew that we had some major problems with the condition of the stonework, but we didn’t know quite how bad it was until we got up there.”
The nave of St Wilfrid’s dates from 1584 and the spire was completed in 1859, replacing a a structure which was blown down in a storm.
The restoration of the 130ft (39m) spire has cost in excess of £500,000, and around half of that total has been raised by local people.
The National Churches Trust donated £55,000 to complete the work, while £216,000 came from a National Lottery heritage grant.
Rev Andrew Holliday, the rector, told Radio Manchester that the work was “not just about preserving something set in history”.
“This place is used every single day and is a living heartbeat of this community,” he said.
James Dalton, a director of Heritage Conservation Restoration Ltd, said: “What lets down buildings like this is the iron fixings which have started to rust away.
“We’ve had to put the scaffolding up, dismantle the cracked stonework, introduce new stainless steel fixings and then rebuild it.”
