During the freak storms of January 2001, Gorebridge Parish Church in Midlothian suffered the unusual fate, and disastrous consequences, of having the finial and the top 5 feet of its spire blow off, crash down through the roof, and land in the upper gallery of the main church building where it smashed 2 pews and the floor.

BCM Steeplejacks were called in to deal with the emergency. The first task was to check that there was no further danger of masonry falling from the spire. We then happed over the hole in the roof to keep out the storm, and proceeded to put our access in place to carry out the necessary repairs to the spire.

After this phase had been completed we were asked to carry out the repairs to the roof.

Below is a quick overview of the whole contract.

Unfortunately we do not have any pictures to show how the spire looked immediately after the accident. We were too busy getting the scaffold on and dismantling the damaged masonry to think of taking pictures.