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Work starts on wonky historic church steeple
Marie Glover, Jean Mangnall and Mary Johnson, parishioners of St Catharine's CE Church, Scholes, promote the SOS - Save Our Steeple appeal
A WIGAN church’s famously wonky steeple is to be put straight.
Engineers say if the spire of St Catharine’s, Scholes, is left unattended it will eventually collapse. And now a lotttery grant is set to save the historic building from closure.
The only down side is that, unlike the Leaning Tower of Pisa and the skewed spire of Chesterfield Cathedral, the restoration work will be unable to retain the building’s distinctive bend.
A combination of mining subsidence, poor ground and the rusting of internal metal supports have given the grade two listed building its drunken air. And tests have shown that the droop in the spire - currently 5ft out of kilter - is gradually getting worse.
Work, however, began this week to save the building thanks to the awarding of £600,000 in Heritage Lottery cash.
This will be topped up by a Viridor grant and a projected £150,000 worth of fund-raising by the church in the months ahead.
Over the course of the year the top two sections of the stone tower will be temporarily dismantled.
The vicar, Rev Sam Nicholson, said: “We are delighted that at the end of the project the church is still going to be here. If permission had not been granted and the money not been made available, we would have had to have closed.
“We have got to raise money ourselves. Hopefully some will come back through VAT although rules have changed, and obviously we are also relying on the goodwill of people in our church and people outside.
“It is not just a building, it is a place of worship that is a sign of God’s presence in our community.”
Wigan architect Anthony Grimshaw has been working with English Heritage to discuss the various options and it was eventually decided that the steeple would have to be re-built.
Over the coming months the spire and octagonal section of the tower will be taken down. The remaining square tower will then be reinforced internally by the introduction of a steel framework which will also support the clock and bell platforms.
New piled foundations are then proposed with ground beams which will mean a new ground floor for the tower.
The remaining tower walls and windows are to be repaired, missing stones replaced and the whole edifice completely repointed and repaired. The steeple and octagonal part of the tower is then to be re-erected with a new cross-tree (metal support).
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Comments
There are 26 comments to this article
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Truth Advocate
Monday, February 6, 2012 at 09:05 PMContrary to NO: 18, MP, we have a FARCICAL not âgenerousâ welfare system in this country who cheating the vulnerable - so they are left cold and hungry, but agreed to it is NOT the churches job to make up for the failings of society â namely, the UK government and their pseudo charities and parasitical agencies ---------------- Jobcentre and atos ilk, overpaid DWP staff, have been found cheating people of ALL benefits and their homes happily leaving them penniless in dire poverty - to the point where people have committed suicide like ex-army and people with low literacy and numeracy skills, Mark and Helen Mullins. --------------- In fact, on general âunemployment benefitâ the DWP has put in writing - it has NO breakdown of actual figures to how a person is suppose to live on £67 a week (which included paying items like water bills £40 pm for starters, then there is food, utilities, clothing travel etc) - suggest you donât take my word for it, a starting point is the Rowntree report to personally research this for yourself. In fact, likewise, even Wigan CEO (who at one point was being paid £229,000), in a public available written âpresentationâ identifies poverty, where a person has less than £10 a day to live on; btw additionally Wigan reporter recently even ran an article to a council report that we have 40% child poverty locally ! ------------ Hypocritically our duplicitous MPs give million to India who like our âeliteâ are too busy in robbing itâs own poor rather than helping ! On taxpayers picking up the bill to ponzi-schemes, for starters, locally the article to outdoor centres in the Lake District have been saved after councillors agreed to lease them to a âcharityâ â check where this charity gets itâs money from, why itâs the Department of Education, lol, money-go-around schemes ! ---------- Personally I have no problem with lottery fund (which was sold to a Canada organisation to run, so no longer is even British owned) or women having coffee morning to raise funds for such projects as church spires if thatâs what makes them happy regarding their own time and monies !
Mistress Ploppy
Sunday, February 5, 2012 at 12:02 PM:)
Trelawney
Sunday, February 5, 2012 at 11:24 AMMP you are not 100pc right in your observations, but you would have what is called a landslide if the percentages were translated to votes at an election. I have found it is possible to have meaningful worship in all types of Churches, what can be termed high and low. In fact I have found in today's world the higher churches have more spiritual people. This is a complete reversal to the situation a few years ago. ............................NOW FOR THE SHOCK OF SHOCKS .......................I now agree with your reasoning about the steeple. I did say I was willing to listen to reasoned debate. I however do not agree it is something Christians should countenance, if that makes sense?.
Fingolfin
Sunday, February 5, 2012 at 08:31 AMThat depends on whether you believe democracy is a good thing, my personal belief is that is an evil, a mere façade to keep the powerful in power and the wealthy, wealthy. But that's a debate for another day :)
Mistress Ploppy
Sunday, February 5, 2012 at 07:07 AMTrelawney, this may sound flippant, but I can assure you that it is not intended as such. There appears to be two types of Christian; those who are purely spiritual and those who like 'temples'. The question is, how many of each are there? Being forced to go to church as a child, and punished at school the following day if I did not, I had 90 minutes every Sunday to observe what was going on around me, having no interest in the proceedings. After becoming an expert on the "Table of moveable feasts", I observed all the individuals in the congregation to try to work out their motive for being there. .......................................................................................... I concluded that for those with ambition it was an opportunity to be a big fish in a little sea with the ultimate aim of being a church warden or lay preacher, for many it was an opportunity to show of their latest hat. Others appeared to be there because somehow they were afraid of not being there, effectively 'hedging their bets'. For others it was to get their children into a specific grammar school. ........................................................................................ I was convinced that there were actually very few of the spiritual type. Speaking to people since, I have also found that many spiritual Christians don't attend church at all, probably disliking the same stereotypes as I do. .................................................................................... Now after all this I come to my point. If the spiritual Christians are in the minority that I believe, then should their wishes take precedence over the majority type of Christian? I believe that the majority don't care about the source of the funding, and they do like 'temples'. Surely their wishes along with us atheists who like church buildings and architecture in general must take precedence in a democracy.
Trelawney
Saturday, February 4, 2012 at 09:16 PMMP ..I can see were you are coming from as an atheist, now I ask you to take a leap of faith and try to look at it from a Christian view point. "Obviously some Christians have no problem with the money coming from source that panders to envy and greed. Neither do they have, problems building temples on earth rather than in heaven."BUT others do, Now purely from an academic point, take that leap of faith and try to think as a Christian, were do you now stand?...........The comments in speech marks are made tongue in cheek and are not meant as criticism of the congregation of this Church.
Mistress Ploppy
Saturday, February 4, 2012 at 06:57 PMJemmyH. When were "Halton Castle, Castle Hotel and the Runcorn Bridges" relocated to the CENTRE of Runcorn, as I referred to in post 11? I realise that I don't have a detailed knowledge square inch by square inch that you have, but last time I looked, they were all some distance from the centre. In fact Halton Castle is in Halton, which in the same way that Pemberton and Scholes etc are not in Wigan, cannot possibly be in Runcorn. At least be consistent.
JemmyH
Saturday, February 4, 2012 at 05:45 PMMistress Ploppy, Post 11 - you refer to Runcorn as being architecturally sterile, yet it's the site of much ancient architecture including Halton Castle, Castle Hotel, various churches (some from the sixteenth century) and, of course, the Runcorn Bridges (ancient and modern). ...... Tha knows nowt.
Mistress Ploppy
Saturday, February 4, 2012 at 03:57 PMWhilst as an atheist I would be more than happy for the worshippers to pay for the building, they are only temporary residents of it. The building was there before they (the current occupants) were, and hopefully will be there long after they have gone. Such buildings morally belong to the town and to the whole population, and not just people have a specific interest in life and have the fortune to be using it at the moment. ................................................................................ Remember that when churches were built, they were built with the sweat and finance of the whole population who were no doubt given no choice from 'The Church' other than to finance it. There isn't a good analogy with other buildings as Wigan is rather short of character buildings that aren't churches, but would you be happy to see the town hall (I realise it's not a great example) abandoned and replaced with 'Brocol House Mk2' if the current residents of it couldn't pay for it out of their own pockets and couldn't get finance elsewhere? .................................................................. I don't agree with this argument about people going 'cold and hungry'. We have a generous benefit system in this country which ensures that nobody needs to be cold and hungry, especially people aged over 60 with generous heating allowances. If these people choose to spend their money elsewhere instead of heating their house, or even worse sit in the cold and not eat while having thousands of pounds in the bank 'for a rainy day', then there is nothing that anybody can do about it, and I don't believe that it is up to the church to support them. Maybe in years gone by then yes, but not in the 21st century.
Fingolfin
Saturday, February 4, 2012 at 12:46 PMI can see the argument from both sides. I just feel uncomfortable with the churches attitude to these situations. Church is supposed to be about worshiping God, you can do that anywhere you don't need an expensive building. It's supposed to be about God, not other idols, statues, buildings, costumes or other such like.
Trelawney
Saturday, February 4, 2012 at 10:43 AMMP I have no problem with preserving "worthy buildings" and as you say Scholes is lacking in them. My point is from a Christian perspective. Firstly I am challenged on several points, to spend this sum on a building when as one contributor wrote people are going cold and hungry.Secondly, although I agree that Christians do gamble, the lottery panders to greed and envy with the large prizes, something Christ taught against. Before you ask I have never bought a lottery ticket . Yes I would be loathed to see it go, but at the end of the day it is up to the worshipers to preserve their own building.
Mistress Ploppy
Saturday, February 4, 2012 at 10:00 AMSorry for the missing 'e'
Mistress Ploppy
Saturday, February 4, 2012 at 09:59 AMTrelawny, Surely you're not suggesting Christians don't gamble. ;) Look at the figures. Only 20% of the figure has been raised by the church, which technically could have been used for more 'Christian' purposes, but assuming this £150k came from the public, would the public have been so willing to donate if they knew their contributions were going to be used to help druggies or vagrants, or sent to Africa to eventually end up in a dictator's Swiss bank account? The 80% from the Lottery would no doubt have bee used to pay for a new extension at the Royal Opera House, British Museum or similar London project. Surely it is better that it is spent preserving a building in Wigan. Scholes has been blighted enough since the gung-ho demolition of the sixties. It's nice to have one building left to remind people that it once was a community and not an experiment in concrete technology. I'm not from Scholes by the way, in fact I'm not even originally from Wigan.
Trelawney
Saturday, February 4, 2012 at 09:13 AMMP I appreciate your comments and they are valid, however you say it has nothing to do with religion? But it is a Church of the Christian faith and as such, believer or not is it right that someone or somebodies who profess a Christian Faith should spend these vast sums on a building from a source that is based on gambling ? , .
thekop89
Saturday, February 4, 2012 at 08:44 AMknock it down simples...
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