The tower of a medieval church in central England is in danger because it is tilting superior to that of the famous Italian tower of Pisa, and parishioners have launched a voluntary operation to raise the 100,000 pounds ($135,000) needed for its repair.
According to the newspaper The Guardianthe tower of Saint James’s Church in Dry Doddington (200 kilometers north of London) has a tilt of 5.1 degrees, much steeper than that of Pisa (3.97 degrees).
A church that is almost 1000 years old
The church was built in the 12th centuryalthough the tower was added two centuries later. The entire complex has been classified with «grade 2» protection, which is granted to buildings of special historical or architectural significance.
In the 19th century, the tower began to lose verticality due to the wooden foundations of the church, which have given rise to what locals call «a crooked floor. The inclination worsened and in 2015 a first intervention had to be carried out to consolidate the highest part of the tower, since some of the stones that make up it fell to the ground due to that inclination.
The locals of Dry Doddington, led by the churchkeeper, Richard Loynes, have launched a crowdfunding operation to try to replace the «crooked floor» with more stable foundations and return the tower to verticality.
EFE Agency.
GML
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