Wonky Lincolnshire church that leans more than Tower of Pisa needs £100k for repairs
A Lincolnshire church dubbed Britain’s answer to the Leaning Tower of Pisa has made a desperate plea for £100,000 to repair its uneven floor.
St James’s Church in Dry Doddington is famous for its crooked tower, which leans 5.1 degrees compared to 3.97 degrees for the Italian medieval structure.
But the church urgently needs funding to renovate its sloping floor, replaster the walls and upgrade its electricity.
The building dates back to the 12th century and the famous leaning tower was built in the early 14th century. The Grade II-listed building has undergone numerous repairs over the decades, including a major restoration of the tower’s stonework in 2015.
According to Lincolnshire Parish Council’s website, the church’s floors are “very unstable” and the timbers are badly rotted and infested with woodworms.
The report also states that due to its unstable situation, the congregation is currently unable to hold community events at the church.
Churchwarden Richard Loynes is a GoFundMe page to help raise money to reopen the church doors.
On the page he wrote: “We need to replace the very old floor of our 14th century church with its famous tower that leans more than Pisa!”
To talk LincsOnlineHe added: “Like hundreds of churches, we need to raise funds but we are worse off, if not worse than most, as our grounds are precarious.
“We are hoping to raise just over £100,000 to tackle the floor, re-clad some walls and upgrade the electricity as we only have one plug.”
Proposed future restoration projects include repair of the east window and other work to ensure the safety of the building.
The name of the village of Dry Doddington is a combination of the Old English words “dryge” and “Dodda+ing+ton” meaning “the dry land of a man named Dodda”. It is also referred to as Dodintune in the Doomsday Book of 1086.
St James also has a memorial to the 49 Squadron Avro Lancaster bomber that crashed near the village in November 1944.
