A GRADE-I listed church in Greater Manchester is being restored with the help of the Territorial Army.
St Augustine’s, Pendlebury, in Salford, suffered extensive damage when vandals smashed the cellar covers. Further attacks to the Victorian church — described by the architectural historian Sir Nikolaus Pevsner as “one of the finest English churches of all time” — caused more than eight feet of flooding.
But Territorial Army soldiers have pumped out the water, and fitted an armour-plated door to prevent further damage.
The latest restoration work on the church has been undertaken by Pendlebury Area Community Enterprise (PACE) and the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers (REME).
St Augustine’s Team Vicar, the Revd Ian Hall, has been instrumental in organising the project, having joined the TA as a part-time chaplain last year. The efforts of PACE and REME, he said, “highlights how lucky we are to have them in our community.”
Mr Hall has undergone assault-course training and rigorous drills with trainees at Sandhurst and other army bases, and could be posted abroad to Afghanistan or Iraq. But he says he feels inspired to give spiritual support to serving troops, and looks forward to the challenge of being sent to one of the world’s trouble-spots.
He holds the rank of captain, and is attached to the Stretford-based 207 (Manchester) Field Hospital, one of two TA field hospitals in the north west.
St Augustine’s was consecrated in May 1874, and became known locally as “the Miners’ Cathedral” owing to its location in the middle of an area of industry and mining. It houses a memorial to 178 men killed in an explosion in Clifton Hall colliery in 1885.
The church features in several of L. S. Lowry’s paintings. |
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