St Luke’s Church

Client: Dean of Brecon

Location: Farnworth, Widnes

Budget:

Status: Ongoing

The Grade II* Listed, St Luke’s Church has a fine medieval roof over the Chancel and is the second oldest building in the Borough.  Built from soft red sandstone and exhibiting many different eras of alteration, it has suffered major problems with water ingress and vandalism through theft of lead.

The FPL 2011 Condition Report identified urgent remedial works required to tackle failing parapet gutters, inadequate roof downpipes and poorly-detailed lead flashings and gutters.  It was suspected that the medieval timbers were in a very poor condition due to being attacked by a combination of rot and insect attack.  An urgent phase of intrusive investigations was carried out in late 2011 and these concerns were confirmed and one particular beam found to be entirely unsupported necessitating immediate propping.

A substantial English Heritage grant was obtained for a first phase of urgent repairs to the structure and roof over the Chancel allowing the works to progress in spring 2012.  A second phase of works to the remainder of the roofs at the East end of the Nave will follow to tackle leaking gutters, poor and inadequate roof drainage from parapet gutters.

The first phase required a detailed analysis and recording of the historic structure coupled with a sensitive approach to introducing new elements of structure; a new steel frame creates an over-roof spanning across the Chancel and supporting a completely new slate roof and suspending the repaired medieval beams below

• Categories: Churches, Listed Buildings and Conservation