Lifeline to help rescue church

Mar 7 2008 by Tony Henderson, The Journal

A LIFELINE was thrown yesterday to help prevent the collapse of an ancient church in one of Northumberland’s prettiest villages.

The Church of St Lawrence in Warkworth was built in the early 12th Century on the site of an earlier Saxon building.

But the north wall of the nave was built on around 50 feet of sandy deposits near the River Coquet and it has been gradually leaning outwards.

The 800-year-old wall is now 20 inches out of true. It has moved two of those inches in the last 40 years and the process is accelerating.

The church is faced with raising more than £500,000 to pay for a specialised rescue operation which must be carried out within the next two years.

So far the congregation and villagers have raised around £60,000, and yesterday English Heritage and the Heritage Lottery Fund pledged £25,000 to pay for preparatory work for the major scheme to halt the lean. There will be another £275,000 – if the church can raise a matching amount over the next year, said the Vicar of St Lawrence, Canon Janet Brearley.

She said: “There has been a church here since 737. It is safe at the moment but if it is left it will fall down. The further the wall leans, the quicker it goes, bringing the roof and everything else down. It is the time factor which is really putting the wind up us all. We have one chance to do something to save the building.”

Work will involve sinking piles more than 50ft on to bedrock, and picking out stones from the 12th Century wall to allow the insertion of concrete beams. The stone would then be replaced to deliver an invisible repair.

Andy Webber, a retired managing director who lives in Warkworth, is chairman of the restoration appeal committee. He said: “We are cock-a-hoop at the new grant. The church is a well-loved and important part of community life in Warkworth.”

Mr Webber said that investigations had shown that the early medieval builders had based the wall on boulders which they had sunk into the soft deposits.

“They did a marvellous building job, but the leaning of the wall has been going on since the 13th Century but the music has stopped with us .”

The church has already had to find £35,000 in 2006 to repoint the spire. Mr Webber said: “The church is a tourism magnet but it is also still used for its original purpose and the question is where would Warkworth be without its church?” Newcastle property firm Sanderson Young has sponsored the printing of 3,000 appeal brochures and a Friends of Warkworth church has been set up, raising £8,000 through an annual membership fee of £10 individual, £20 family and £200 for life membership. Anyone wanting to help the appeal should telephone (01665) 711217.

Tony Henderson