{"id":7334,"date":"2014-03-15T18:27:58","date_gmt":"2014-03-15T18:27:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ihbconline.co.uk\/newsachive\/?p=7334"},"modified":"2014-03-15T19:08:51","modified_gmt":"2014-03-15T19:08:51","slug":"night-raiders-target-historic-church","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/?p=7334","title":{"rendered":"Night raiders target historic church"},"content":{"rendered":"

THIEVES have stolen 40 flagstones from the grounds of a historic Warrington church currently struggling to raise money for a \u00a31 million restoration project.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Warrington-worldwide writes:
\n<\/span>The raiders targeted St Oswald\u2019s Church, Winwick after the hours of darkness \u2013 and disconnected the church floodlights to try and hide their activity.<\/p>\n

However, they may have been disturbed by local residents out walking their dog as a white van was seen speeding away from the scene.<\/p>\n

The Rector, Canon June Steventon said: \u2018We are working so hard to keep the roof above our heads and the flags are stolen from under our feet!\u2019<\/p>\n

It was around 8.30pm on Saturday that the 40 flagstones were stolen from the north pathway of the church grounds.<\/p>\n

Canon Steventon said: \u2018This is sad news for the church and community of Winwick, who for over three years have been raising money to restore the Grade 1 Listed building following infestation by death watch beetle.<\/p>\n

\u2018Originally estimated at \u00a31 million to restore, the church has successfully completed the first phase, costing \u00a3419,000, and having secured English Heritage grant funding of \u00a3248,000 the second phase is due to start this month.<\/p>\n

\u2018It really is disheartening. The community is pulling together to restore this wonderful building. It will take considerable time, money and effort to see this project to its completion. We estimate that we will need to raise a further \u00a3100,000 in addition to English Heritage funding.\u2019<\/p>\n

Police are investigating and anyone with information which could lead to the arrest of the offenders is asked to call them on 101, or via the anonymous Crimestoppers hotline 0800 555 111.<\/p>\n

The earliest parts of the present church date from the early 13th century, but the building was damaged in 1648 when Oliver Cromwell stationed troops there after the Battle of Red Bank.<\/p>\n

The spire was rebuilt and the church restored in 1869 and further restoration, to the tower, was carried out in 1931-32.<\/p>\n

A new vestry, porch and entrance was added in 1934.<\/p>\n

Donations for St. Oswald’s Church can be made on line via the church website www.stoswaldwinwick.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Warrington Worldwide article<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

THIEVES have stolen 40 flagstones from the grounds of a historic Warrington church currently struggling to raise money for a \u00a31 million restoration project.\u00a0 Warrington-worldwide writes: The raiders targeted St Oswald\u2019s Church, Winwick after the hours of darkness \u2013 and … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7334","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sector-newsblog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7334","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7334"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7334\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7335,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7334\/revisions\/7335"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7334"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7334"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7334"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}