Celebration recital after Pendle church's £100k refurbishment

A celebration recital will be held at a Pendle church later this month after the completion of a £100,000 refurbishment.
Photo Neil Cross
St Mary's church, Newchurch-in-Pendle following a £100,000 refurbishmentPhoto Neil Cross
St Mary's church, Newchurch-in-Pendle following a £100,000 refurbishment
Photo Neil Cross St Mary's church, Newchurch-in-Pendle following a £100,000 refurbishment

Twelve months of restoration work has been undertaken at St Mary’s Church in Newchurch-in-Pendle after the Heritage Lottery Fund awarded a grant of £81,400 last year.

With approximately £20,000 of church funds going into the pot too, the important work of eradicating dry rot, constructing a new roof on the tower, adding essential drainage and repairing the organ has now been completed.

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The lunchtime organ recital will take place on Saturday, October 29th with Sam Hudson, the organist at Blackburn Cathedral. It starts at noon and admission is free.

Photo Neil Cross
St Mary's church, Newchurch-in-Pendle following a £100,000 refurbishmentPhoto Neil Cross
St Mary's church, Newchurch-in-Pendle following a £100,000 refurbishment
Photo Neil Cross St Mary's church, Newchurch-in-Pendle following a £100,000 refurbishment

Church treasurer John Parsons said: “The work has finished and we are very pleased.

“We found quite early on that there wasn’t any proper drainage from the tower and around 75% of the water was actually going down into the base of the tower rather than away from the building.

“That is now working well and for the first time in 200 years, if I was to guess, we now have drainage.

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“The organ went of to Mosley in Manchester and has been restored. It is now performing very well and is a lot better than when it came out.

Photo Neil Cross
St Mary's church, Newchurch-in-Pendle following a £100,000 refurbishmentPhoto Neil Cross
St Mary's church, Newchurch-in-Pendle following a £100,000 refurbishment
Photo Neil Cross St Mary's church, Newchurch-in-Pendle following a £100,000 refurbishment

“Basically, the dry rot put the whole building at risk but the Heritage Lottery grant has allowed us to carry out the necessary work and we are extremely grateful for the grant.”

Known as “The Cathedral in the Forest”, St Mary’s hosted an exhibition in September of some of the historical findings discovered during the Heritage Year 2016 which proved a great success as 100 people attended.