St. John - Cross Appeal

St. John's Oakdale Road Carlton

Tower Cross
Restoration Appeal

The Church of St. John the Baptist stands high on the north-eastern edge of the city, and since the 1950's its Tower Cross has been a familiar landmark, visible at night when it is illuminated, right across the Trent valley

But from April 16th 1999, the 17 foot Cross has had to be removed, at least temporarily....

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After initial examination, the lower part of the frame, normally hidden behind the copper, is clearly seen to be eroded away, and in dangerous condition

The Nottingham Central High Rise engineers begin the tricky business of cutting away the base and setting ropes to begin lowering the cross.

Years of rain and strong winds have steadily taken their toll, and now the corrosion has become so severe that it was dangerous to leave the cross in place. There is a special problem of corrosion - when you put wrought iron and copper together in the wet, and run the lightning conductor up them.... and partly just a natual process - things wear out.

The cross is slowly edged over the tower parapet, in readiness for its descent.

and here is gently let down, very slowly and carefully to avoid damage to the building on the way !!

Each year the cross has been carefully inspected, and last year we'd already decided it was time to plan for its eventual replacement. But this year it became clear action would be needed much sooner than anyone realised. In the very high winds of early Spring, pieces of the copper cladding started to pull loose, and it emerged that the inner structure was deteriorating.

Safely onto the flat roof of the Lady Chapel, the cross can be manhandled to the porch edge

And finally Churchwarden John Clark helps as the damaged structure reaches the ground.....

We called in Central High Rise for temporary repairs, and agreed with them and the architect and diocesan authorities, to have a more thorough inspection so soon as possible. They began that today, and found that all the lower part of the iron cladding had already rusted away, so the cross could not be left in place.

Here the corrosion damage can only too clearly be seen... Originally the double girders at the centre were all covered by wrought iron octagonal inner formers

- and here you can clearly see how the entire lower section has rusted away... the remains fell on the tower roof in crumbling fragments when the engineers began to dismantle the outer copper shell.

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What was hidden behind the verdigris of the copper shell

Detail of the orginal structure....

Iron centre girders,

covered with a shaped iron former

and finally clad in copper

Here all three elements are visible, in different stages of decay...

The copper ribbon screwed along the diagonal was the lightning conductor.

In 1999 for the Millennium we were raising funds to restore the church clock and chimes (well, it was about Time after all!) and quite apart from that, as ever the normal maintenance will already swallowed too much of our income.

We shall want to put the Cross back so soon as possible..

It is of course a serious problem for the Church.

For the Cross is well known across the Trent Vale, and locally people know it's often lit by night not only as a sign of the Christian Church but also in memory of folk they know who have died. Replacing it will mean finding at least another £9,000 or £10,000. And we are a very small suburban parish, so that will not be easy for the Church Council to do. There will of course have to be an appeal (perhaps we could offer to sell souvenir pieces of the copper cladding of the original cross at £10 each ?) If you would like to help us to put the Cross back on the tower, please contact us.....

An eMail link is below. The Church Appeal address is

261 Oakdale Road, Carlton, Nottingham,

England NG4 1BP