 |
|
Early on Friday evening 27/Oct, a speeding car, coming up Farnworth Street, lost control and ploughed into the church wall to the right of the main gates, between the lamp post and a sign post. It demolished the 15th century sandstone wall, throwing pieces of sandstone towards the church building. It also hit the 10’ tall sandstone Anglo Saxon Preaching Cross, which dates from the 9th century, breaking it into several pieces. The Cross seems to have stopped the car going further towards the church building. |
 |
| The driver of the car ran off into the churchyard, but was later arrested by the police, as the car belonged to the driver, so police were able to access his details . | |
 |
The whole incident was captured on the CCTV cameras at the corner shop. It was very fortunate that no one was walking near the church or any cars parked by the shop at the time. The car was finally removed by the police just after midnight. The area was made safe by a Church Warden and Assistant on Saturday morning. |
|
Hopefully an Insurance claim will cover the majority of the damage, but the repair to the Celtic cross will be expensive, as it will require a specialist stone mason to do the work. A repair to one of the gargoyles recently cost £8,000, so this repair will possibly be double that amount. |
 |
