A centuries-old church that came within weeks of shutting its doors has been rescued by an extraordinary find: nine gold Britannia coins, worth close to £30,000, discovered tucked beneath the altar.
The Times reports that St Wilfrid's, a 700-year-old parish church in Melling near Lancaster, had been unable to raise the £750,000 needed for essential repairs, including a full roof replacement, and closure looked all but certain.
Then, on Good Friday, everything changed. Rev Jane Lee was setting up for morning prayers with a lay minister when the pair stumbled across a small box tucked inside a plastic bag. Inside were the coins.
"We just burst into tears when we saw it," Lee told BBC North West Tonight. "We couldn't believe it. It was like a miracle, because it's so desperately needed."
At the time, the church was already in the process of shutting down.
"We were struggling to keep our doors open," Lee said, describing the building as being "in a bit of a pickle" given the scale of work still required.
Rather than treating the windfall as a quick fix, Lee sees it as a starting point. According to her, the money would act as "a seed" to strengthen applications for grants and other fundraising drives aimed at completing the repairs properly.
Lee suspects the coins were left by an anonymous donor roughly four years ago. Several other churches in the area have also received comparable mystery gifts back in 2022, but St Wilfrid's had never uncovered its own gift until now.
Lee alluded to the fact that the timing of the find was part of a possible bigger plan for the church.
"For me, it's significant because we've got more community backing now to the church, whereas four years ago we would have probably just spent it on the day-to-day running," she said. "Now it's there for a seed to get all the repairs done that need to be done."
With the funding boost now in hand, the historic church has a fresh chance to secure its long-term future rather than face demolition or deconsecration.
According to The National Churches Trust around 5% of congregations are unsure of their survival and believe they may close by 2030 with that number rising for rural areas.