COTHERSTONE Church’s weathervane cock has been restored to its steeple more than two years after it came down and crashed through a neighbour’s roof.
The cock, perched at the top of St Cuthbert’s Church steeple, fell off during a storm in early 2019, but a succession of problems has prevented it from being put back until now.
Steeplejacks used ladders and climbing ropes to scale the bell tower and spire because it is impossible to get access from inside the church.
Assistant church warden Jeff Lynn rememberd the day the cock came down.
He said: “I got a call from the neighbour to say the cock had come through the roof. I thought he was joking.”
The church quickly arranged to make good the damage to the neighbour’s property but getting the cock repaired and returned to its perch proved to be a much more difficult task.
Drew Gibson, of Taylor Hastwell Steeplejacks, was called in to help.
He said: “We had three attempts at an inspection but the wind and weather made it impossible. We ended up doing it with a drone to get measurements for a new sleeve.”
The company set about repairing the metalwork to the weathervane cock and making a new stainless-steel sleeve to fix it to the steeple.
Mr Lynn said: “They were all ready to put it up when Covid struck. So, it has been a long, drawn out process. Then the wind kept putting us off.”
However, under relatively calm conditions late last month, Mr Gibson and his assistant, Sam Daltry, were able to return the cock to its rightful place.
Next on Mr Lynn’s to-do list is to have the church clock repaired. The clock, which was made by the Dent company – which also made London’s famous Big Ben – is plagued by rooks which try to nest in slats above the clock face.
Mr Lynn said the problem is that twigs from their nesting site keep dropping into the clock’s mechanism causing it to fail.
Engineers from Cumbria Clock Company are expected to get it back in working order before the end of September, Mr Lynn said.
