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Torched church will rise from the ashes

Paul Britton
22/ 3/2008

THE vicar of the historic church destroyed in an arson attack said it would return to the community ‘better than ever’.

The Rev Graham Lindley, the vicar of Grade II listed St Thomas’s Church spoke after a schoolboy pleaded guilty to arson.

The blaze, caused when the 14-year-old damaged a kerosene tank then used a cigarette lighter to set fire to a fuel trail, caused damage estimated at £5M.

Eight weddings had to be cancelled, funerals and christenings were halted and church services switched to the nearby primary school.

Bolton Crown Court was told that the fuel spread 25 metres to the church.

Nobody was injured or inside at the time, but the building was left gutted last December.

The blaze left the majority of the east side of the church destroyed. It is expected to cost £25,000 to repair the church organ and gravestones were also blackened and cracked.

Mr Lindley said he hoped the church would re-open next year.

He said: "This has been a major incident. We do not think we will be back in until the summer of next year.

"It has taken all this time to make the building safe. It will only be at that point that we know the extent of the damage.

"Some weddings have been put off for 12 months. Other couples have gone to other churches.

"Couples have been left really upset by this. It has caused a lot of upset and distress.

"Everybody felt the hurt and it is still quite raw.

"But it will be wonderful, better than ever, when it is finished. I am absolutely sure about that."

The teenager from Rochdale, who cannot be named for legal reasons, pleaded guilty to a single charge of arson.

The church was built in 1876 as a replica of Western-Super-Mare’s Holy Trinity Church.

At an earlier court hearing, the damage was estimated at £2M, but the court was told that the figure could rise to as much as £5M.

A fundraising appeal is now under way at the church.

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