St Mary's updates

A Letter from Nantwich update

September 2009

Church view restored

The west end of St Mary's on the first weekend in September. The scaffolding with its pink screening has gone and the new stonework and pinnacles are brightly lit with a rare burst of sunshine.

IT'S back. The well-known view of St Mary's Parish Church in The Square. After seven months of being shrouded in pink netting and ugly scaffolding masking the west end, the church was revealed again in all its glory. (See the view here).

Now townspeople and tourists alike can see the sandstone building as it should be, and brides will be happy for their wedding photographs to be taken with the former background.

The west end has been given a facelift and pinnacles which were removed for safety reasons in recent years have been replaced with new sections.

At the same time, the south porch - the main entrance when the west doors are not open - has been given a new look and a lift for use by wheelchair users. See here for that update.

The repaired stonework and pinnacles

A close-up of the new cross on the west end

A restored pinnacle - replaced from

the sooty layer upwards


A repaired finial on the West front of the church		You've missed a bit! One of the sandstone blocks that has seen better days but clearly not yet in need of replacement

A new look for the south entrance

THIS is the spacious, airy south entrance to St Mary's after the Victorian inner porch had been removed and four new sandstone steps had been installed. The inner porch - pictured below - had a single side door (unseen on the right in the picture), and double doors at the front.
The double doors of the inner porch were only opened at the end of services as the congregation exited en masse or for brides to walk in with their bridesmaids. Sadly, as the inner porch was not as tall as the wooden doors it protected, the latter had had to be cut across to allow the lower part to open inside the porch. The work on the new entrance has allowed the doors to be restored to a single piece. The join may be made out cutting through the upper loop in the ironwork on the face of the door in the picture above. Seen left is an artist's view of the work. What will happen to the inner porch? See the appeal page for the answer.
To the right of the larger picture above is a "stair lift" for wheelchair users - a little larger than domestic ones - which is operated by push buttons. The platform for wheelchairs is folded up in the picture. Pushbuttons will also open the glass doors for people who cannot push or pull them. When I called in, able-bodied people were using them for the novelty of it! As with all changes, I am sure there will be people who would prefer things to have stayed as they were. I have to say that I like the new look. Apart from the doors, the new steps give the entrance a majestic feel, very fitting for the "Cathedral of South Cheshire". Having said that, I am not keen on the handles on the two sets of south porch glass doors (those are the outer ones, right) which - I am sorry to say - look as though they have been fashioned from small-bore stainless steel piping. I would have preferred to see something more substantial. Something more elegant. Above is a closer view of the steps and the more open aspect of the rear seats in the south aisle.
West door curtains return
The curtains at the west door are now back in place after cleaning and repair work undertaken while the west end and the south entrance were updated. They were made by the church tapestry group to mark the silver jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II in 1977.

Original letter \| £1million appeal launched \| Updates page \| Website index page \| Letters index A Places to See page \| St Mary's Parish Church website