ON the eve of its centenary, Walsden Parish Church, Todmorden, was gutted in a fierce fire, watched by hundreds of parishioners.

The next morning, with the spire the only substantial part of the building left standing, they began showering notes and coins into boxes marked with ‘help us rebuild’.

Many, who had not slept since the fire began, gazed with horror of the shell of their church and streamed through the churchyard to view the charred remains.

There should have been a wedding of two parishioners that morning and the vicar, the Rev T Crawford, who had been up all night, helping save church records, had to quickly revise plans.

In the end, the couple, James Albert Stewart and Miss Rubina Goldie were married by Rev Crawford in Todmorden instead.

The alarm was raised by Arthur Gledhill, who lived across the street.

He said: “I saw what appeared to be a light in the window at 11pm, but when I heard glass splintering, ! realised it was more than that and ran out into the road shouting ‘fire’ and then to the phone box to call the firemen.

“In four minutes, the church was a mass of flames and there was a terrific blaze until the roof fell in.”

Although the belfry was a mass of flames, the church clock kept striking each quarter and even when the fire was at its height, at midnight, as four fire brigades battled to control it, it sounded out its 12 notes.

The verger for 21 years, Arthur Cryer, of Hollins Road, said: “It is our anniversary and the children have been practising very hard, but nothing has been saved in the body of the church – the organ, altar and everything are gone.”

He began the appeal fund and by the first lunchtime, more than £20 had been collected.