Historic items salvaged after major church fire

Rare artefacts dating back to the 1880s are being catalogued and restored after being salvaged following a major fire at a church in Leicester.

St Andrew's Church, in Jarrom Street, was severely damaged in a blaze on 28 July but officials have said it was remarkable that rare items survived the flames.

Archive posters, photographs and records have been recovered with little damage and are to be moved to the Records Office for Leicester and Leicestershire.

Church treasurer Elizabeth Amias said many of the recovered items had not been viewed for years and had shed light on the Victorian church's past.

They include notices and posters detailing the life of the church such as fund-raising posters, an advertisement for a show of "live pond life with electric light" in 1890, as well as birth, death and marriage registers.

A Victorian embroidered altar cloth, known as a frontal, has been handed to Leicestershire Museums collection service which is keeping it in a specialist freezer until it can be restored.

The fire, which Leicestershire and Rescue Fire Service said was thought to have started accidentally, destroyed much of the church.

Amias said once it had been extinguished, she and colleagues were able to enter and see what they could recover.

The 164-year-old church's paper archive was found in a cupboard.

"It was really close to the fire," Amias said.

"It really is amazing what has survived."

She said the archive had "a smoky smell" but was not affected by soot or the water from the firefighting effort.

It consisted of boxes and bags of paperwork and photographs with large ledgers containing wedding banns, birth and death records.

Amias said: "It's clear that the church has always been fundraising.

"In that way nothing changes but it [the church] ran schools in the past and ran mission rooms around the city as well.

"There's even tickets and programmes for The Little Theatre [in Leicester] going back to the 1960s.

"We wouldn't want to lose these historic treasures.

"Once it's gone, there's no other version somewhere, so it's important for us and into the future as well."

Staff from the record office have held an initial visit to the church and intend to take away and catalogue them in their archive in Wigston, Amias said.

The Leicestershire Museums Service is also working with the church to preserve the altar frontal from the chapel of St John.

Amias said it was "a miracle" the decorated piece of fabric, embroidered in gold to reflect the liturgical calendar, survived.

She said: "The museum service have housed it in their big conservation freezer which means there won't be any mould on it, so in the future we can get a conservator to come and clean and put it back to rights again."

The church has said the cost of repairing the damage has not been calculated yet but it hopes insurance will cover some of the bill.

Worshippers have started an online fundraiser to help with the repairs and with the drop in church income as a result of disruption.

The Reverend Johannes Arens, vicar of St Andrews, said: "A considerable part of our income stream is gone because we can't rent out the church.

"So a considerable part of a regular income is gone, and whatever will happen next we will need money.

"If people want to help us that would be most gratefully received at this time."

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