The Church of Stanley dedicated to St. Peter was constructed in 1822 at a cost of £12,000 and opened in September  6th  1824; The Rev. G. W. Lewis was instituted as the incumbent by the patron, the Vicar of Wakefield.

On February 18th 1911 a disastrous fire occurred destroying the building due to the pitch pine roof being ignited by heat from the boiler.

The Churches misfortunes would continue over the next several decades through subsidence caused by mine workings. Work was carried out to try fix the problem in the 1920s but overtime the problem has worsened and due to an increasing cost to repair the building, the church was relocated in 2001 to the old school building, ironically the same place that housed the church for two years after the 1911 fire. Today the old church stands derelict and amid controversial plans to convert it to a housing development.

Structually the east end of the church is in a desperately dangerous sitaution with a crack going down both sides of the church walls. It will only be a matter of time before it colapses.

 

 

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6 Comments

  • tumbles, February 21, 2014 @ 11:37

    No really, trust me having been inside.. it was structurally wreaked.

  • Michelle Carter ( Hunter), February 19, 2014 @ 08:07

    Firstly i just want to say i can’t imagine how much it has cost to demolish the church, am very sure restoration of the church may have worked out cheaper in the long term but we will never know. Have got a lot of wonderful memories of the church from going to Sunday school, choir and marrying my husband there, we was the last ever couple to get married there. Its such a shame that the petition didn’t help to keep the church and what a sad day for Stanley and for those who lived in the village who are no longer there. I would have loved to have gone to the last service a week last Sunday but couldn’t make it unfortunately.

  • Angela Poole, February 10, 2014 @ 23:44

    I seriously cannot believe they are even thinking about demolishing St Peters. It is too much of a symbol of Stanley, it has beautiful architecture and I know of people travelling miles especially to see. My Mums remains are buried close to the church so I have a personal love for it. How they can try to save some of the monstrosities within the area and condemn St Peters is beyond belief.

  • graham mattok, February 10, 2014 @ 23:40

    a memorial service was held 9th Feb 14,By teatime 10th Feb the building was half gone Amazing speed

  • tumbles, December 9, 2013 @ 11:48

    Having been in the building I would disagree, there is fundamentally huge structural problems inside which are beyond any realistic repair.

  • L. A. Wilkinson, November 18, 2013 @ 22:00

    St Peters Church Stanley is not as badly damaged as some people want us to believe.
    The cracks which are visible on both sides of the building is where the extension was built and not tied into the main building.
    Deliberate neglect by the clergy ensured that damp could be seen. It wouldn’t have cost much to put the guttering into good repair in the early days when it started to come down.
    They wanted to build a brand new church so they did all they could to destroy the old one.
    It would still be possible to save this building as it is referred to as ‘One in a million’
    There are a few churches scattered around Britain which are part of this group which I believe was built from £1 million which was given by Queen Victoria.
    They have 2 spires.
    It would be a sin to demolish this Church. And I wouldn’t want to live there even when all the corpses have been removed from what was supposed to be their final resting place!

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