19/11/2024
St James New Brighton in the Wirral Peninsula received two grants of £250,000 each from the National Lottery Heritage Fund. The awards paid for the majority of work dismantling and rebuilding its 52-metre spire and overhauling its tower, including work to prevent rain water leaking in.
The church is home to community groups and social action projects including a food bank, a carers and toddlers activity group, meals and activities for children during the holidays and food packs for families. ‘Welcome Wednesdays’ with tea, toast and chat, are a popular fixture.
The church also promotes local history by hosting the New Brighton Heritage and Information Centre.
Richard Wilberforce, Chair of the church’s restoration management committee, said renovation of the spire, in particular, had posed exceptional technical challenges.
“Without the grant to restore the spire, we might not have been able to function at all, because if that had collapsed we would have had no church at all,” he said.
“The second phase was to make the church basically water tight. When water was pouring in during severe weather conditions we couldn’t really expect community groups to want to come in.
"We could not have done this work without the Heritage Lottery Fund grants.”
Architects Lloyd Evans Prichard won the National Churches Trust and Ecclesiastical Architects and Surveyors’ Association King of Prussia Gold Medal for their work to restore the spire.