WORK on St. Marie's Roman Catholic Church in Silver Street, Bury, is nearing completion. A full renovation of the roof has meant re-tiling it and replacing timber in the structure where necessary, and the job began last November.

The historic church was last renovated in the early part of the century and the current work is necessary because leaks in the roof and tower were flooding the choir loft.

As St. Marie's is a Grade 2 listed building, permission for the work had to be applied for back in April from English Heritage, and was only granted at the beginning of November.

Delays to the renovation have been caused by the recent bad weather, but Father Anthony Lawton expects the job to be finished within the next two or three weeks.

He said that the overall cost of the project is £51,000 and money is being raised by social events, like the recent Christmas Fair, dances and donations.

"We are also in the process of producing a History of The Church in five slim volumes, which would make an ideal present for a student studying history at Holy Cross College or St. Gabriel's School.

"All profits from the books go towards the restoration of the roof," he added.

The church was originally built in 1841, and was combined with a school which was on the site where the priest house stands now.

The current priest house was built in 1960.

In the past, the Church, School and the priest house were all together on the one site so that they could be at the centre of the community, easily accessible to Bury's Catholic population, in the centre of the town.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.