Rolling ahead with church restoration

A CHURCH restoration scheme in Saddleworth is going ahead at a great pace — and there may yet be satisfaction to be had from Sir Mick Jagger.

More than £50,000 has now been raised over the last year for the restoration fund at St Mary’s Church.

Sir Mick’s father Joe, a former teacher at Hulme Grammar School for Boys, was a church member and so too was his grandfather, who played the organ there.

An idea was mooted back in 2007 that the multi-millionaire Rolling Stones singer might support the scheme.

Only two years before, Sir Mick was at St Mary’s with his father tinkling the ivories on the church organ. Later father and son popped across to the Clarence pub for a spot of lunch. But an official appeal to the star for help was never made.

But whatever the outcome of any future approach, local folk in Greenfield are doing a decent job of fund-raising in the meantime.

There has been an auction, a painting demonstration by popular local artist David Ford, a Lancashire evening, a St George’s Day concert and a performance by Oldham Choir, while there has been two sizeable donations. Another £50,000 has to be raised to cover the first phase of restoration work, helped by a £136,000 grant from English Heritage.

To repair the whole church will cost £750,000, to be raised by appeals and grants.

A quarter of a million pounds will be needed for the repair of the chancel, a similar sum will be needed for the knave of the church and a further £250,000 will be required to repair the steeple.

St Mary’s was built in 1874 to designs by Uppermill architect George Shaw at a cost of £7,000 and consecrated the following spring.

Now 134 years later, parts of the structure have become unsafe and need urgent attention.

David Parkin, of Greenfield, has been a church member since he joined the choir, aged eight.

Now treasurer of the restoration committee he is a successful businessman in Oldham, running Parkin Fabrics, in Derker. But he is still as committed to his local church.

He said: “It is a nice church and the hub of the community. It will become more difficult to raise the money as we go on, but I am confident that we can do it. Most people do not want to see St Mary’s Church pulled down. In the long term there are fears it could fall into disrepair.

“Yet in some ways the church is doing better. There are new services there for younger people. Bringing more younger people in is a good thing as the congregation tends to be older.”

Church warden Bryan Greenwood said: “We have had a good attendance at the events that we have run and I think a lot more younger people are now taking an interest and waking up to their heritage.

“We feel it should be saved. English Heritage has been quite generous with their grants but this is a problem that so many Victorian churches now face. I hope that we can set an example in tackling the restoration .”