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Mal Vickers/PA Wire
UK News

'Stunning' church could be lost forever, warn experts

The top ten historic buildings most at risk:

Red Barns, Redcar, North Yorkshire

Victoria Mill, Grimsby, Lincolnshire

Old Bute Road Railway Station, Cardiff

Old Library, Stafford

Mount Street Hospital, Preston

Clayton Hospital, Wakefield

St Paul's Church, Boughton, Chester

St Joseph's Seminary, Upholland, Lancashire

Rylands Mill, Wigan

Oliver Buildings, Barnstaple

St Paul's in the Boughton area of Chester is Grade II*- listed but has appeared on a new list by the Victorian Society (VS) charity, ranking the country's top ten historic buildings most at risk.

Sophia Laird from the VS told Premier Christian Radio: "On the inside, it's quite stunning. It's got quite a very nice iron chancel screen and beautiful decorations but the parish has moved out of the building and now it faces quite an uncertain future."

The congregation merged with another church and now attends services at nearby St Luke's in Huntington, prompting concerns St Paul's could be left to deteriorate with no plans made for its future.

Sophia Laird went on to say: "We hope putting the buildings on the list will help draw attention to them. Hopefully, people will have a look at them and campaign locally for something to be done as well as, possibly, developers seeing them and being able to take them on."

The former-Catholic seminary of St Joseph's in Upholland, Lancashire, is among other sites included on the list which has been shut since the early 1990s.

TV presenter and VS vice-president, Griff Rhys Jones, said: "I hope people living near these buildings will seize this opportunity and campaign to save them. Ultimately, it is the support of local people which will ensure that they are not lost forever."

Fragglehunter/PA Wire

Speaking about the importance of buildings featured in the rankings, Sophia Laird went on to say: "I hope they would be very important to their local communities.

"Nationally, they're very important as well. They're all listed buildings but a number of them are listed at Grade II*, such as St Paul's Church in Chester, which puts them in the top eight per cent of listed buildings nationwide."

The VS's director, Christopher Costello added: "This year, for the first time, the top 10 has no entries from London or the South-East. We simply got far more nominations from other regions.

"This perhaps reflects the vastly different financial climate for development in many areas outside the South-East."

Click here to listen to Sophia Laird from the Victorian Society speaking with Premier's Alex Williams:

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