GALLERY: St Mary's tower reopens after £1.8m restoration

Fantastic photos have shown off the restoration works at St Mary's Collegiate Church which officially reopened its tower for the first time in over a year this weekend.

The £1.8 million restoration project was shown off to the public on Saturday 4 May as locals were allowed in for the first time since January last year.

The full splendour of the 160ft tower - which boasts 160 steps and provides stunning views across Warwick, its world-famous castle and the county beyond - has been restored to its former glory thanks to extensive repairs to its stonework, clock faces, pinnacles and heraldic shields.

St Mary's tower, which is visible from every direction, has been a Warwick landmark for centuries. It was destroyed in the Great Fire of Warwick in 1694 and rebuilt in 1704.

The tower is also set to feature a new augmented reality experience that will give an insight into its history using technology created by local company Rivr.

(image via Rivr)

The conservation work to the tower has been a huge project for the church, which launched a dedicated fundraising appeal that attracted local and national support, including a £250,000 grant from The National Lottery Heritage Fund, contributions from local authorities including Warwick Town Council (WTC) and Warwick District Council (WDC), and individual donors.

The appeal was also backed by celebrities including actor Dame Judi Dench, who spoke of how dear the location was to her.

The project has seen repairs to the stonework, as well as the tower's windows and turrets, along with painstaking restoration of the 12 painted stone heraldic shields at the top of the tower.

Church warden John Luxton, a member of the committee behind the tower project, said the reopening of the tower is a huge moment for St Mary's and marks the start of a new chapter - coinciding with the arrival of new vicar Reverend Canon Angus Aagaard, who took up his post at St Mary's at Easter.

(image via Rivr)

He said: "It has been a long and difficult journey to get to this point but thanks to the support of local and national organisations, generous donors, and our own volunteers' fundraising efforts, we're delighted to have restored the tower at St Mary's to its former glory.

"We're aware how disruptive this has been for people in the town, and we're grateful to their patience, but I think we can all agree that seeing this iconic tower scaffold-free, with its stonework repaired and its shields glinting in the sunshine, means that all the hardship was worth it.

"The tower has played a huge role in Warwick's history books and will continue to do so, thanks to the time, dedication and passion of so many involved in this project. It really is a new chapter for St Mary's in so many ways, including the arrival of our new vicar, and we look forward to what the future holds."