All Saints Church, Burton-in-Lonsdale

All Saints Church lies in the village of Burton-in-Lonsdale, North Yorkshire. The building was designed by the Lancaster partnership of Paley and Austin in the Early English style. Work began in 1968, funded by Thomas Thornton on the site of his grandparents’ cottage, and the church opened in 1876.

All Saints Church is built of sandstone with four bay nave, chancel, north aisle, vestry and porch and a transceptual south tower.The roofs are of slate, but the three stage tower has a splay-footed spire clad with timber shingles. The church is recored in the National Trust Heritage List for England as a designated Glade II* listed building.

Lambert Walker Limited has been appointed by John Coward Architects Ltd to undertake a programme of repair and conservation to the church spire. Access will be provided by a complete scaffold around the spire, so that the existing timber shingles can be replaced with new Canadian Western Red Cedar shingles. These will be pre-treated with a preservative to guarantee a service life minimum of 40 years. The hips between the spire facets will be covered with similar cedar shingles that are pre-formed to match existing details.

The erection of the scaffolding will also allow for the condition of the weathervane and lead flashings on the spire to be assessed and any necessary repairs undertaken.  A total of ten sets of timber belfry louvres will also be removed and repaired. Any decayed timbers will be replaced or new sections of the same species of timber will be spliced in, to retain as much of the original historic fabric as possible. The belfry louvres can then be refixed in position and externally fitted with bird control netting.

Glazing repairs will also be carried out on several of the tall lancet windows of the stone tower. These will then be protected by new stainless steel window guards that are designed to be as unobtrusive as possible, as they will be fitted within the innermost profile of the masonry.