St. Dionysius

St Dionysius is the parish Church, which has a spire of grey ashlar and towers 160 feet high above the town. Its origins go back to the 14th century, but sections have been added somewhat later around the mid 1800's. Little more than a century ago, Saint Dionysius merely had the status of Chapel! Having no churchyard, burials took place at St. Mary in Arden, until a plot of land became available on Northampton Road as a Cemetery.

A time of restoration.
In 1997, the clock face was showing signs of damage, thought to be by vandals catapulting stones from the top of a nearby building. On assessing the damage, it was found that some of the circular stonework surrounding the face was also crumbling and in need of replacement. The cost of repairs was likely to be £14,000, and this would include a new carved stone encasement and a more durable face made from polycarbonate (the old one was stained glass).

Fundraising.
The first fundraising event in aid of repairs was on Saturday 27th March 1999, when trips up the tower and an auction took place at the church. The total raised exceeded £1,000.
"For just £1, we were escorted up a very narrow and spiraling stone staircase past the gallery entrance, and up to the next level where the workings of the clock are housed. The movement built by Gillett and Johnson of Croyden, was several feet long, and had a cast iron chassis with a date of 1902 embossed on the side. Winding needs to be done once every 24 hours, which at one time was done by hand, but nowadays, there are electric motors to do the job.

Higher and higher.
To see the bells, we needed to go up higher still, and the stone steps seemed to get even narrower! There are ten bells, two of which were added in later years, and needed to be man handled with ropes through a hatchway knocked out of the side wall. The largest bell weighs 19 hundredweight, and is the one used to chime the hour. At this point, we were at the base of the spire and could go no further, but could look all the way up the huge, hollow chamber of the spire about 100ft to the top."

Further Renovation.
In early 2009, further work had to be carried out on the clock mechanism by the Cumbria Clock Company, after the hourly chime fell silent in August 2008.