Salford Cathedral boasted the tallest spire in Lancashire when it was built in the 1840s. And even though 60-feet of the original 240 had been removed in the 1930s for safety reasons, repairing and repointing the remaining 180-feet was still a tall order. But it was one which the diocesan architects entrusted to Maysand.


During the 28-week long project, the team also repinned 12 lantern lights, rebuilt some lantern lights altogether, and carved and fixed new fleur de lys finials. The turrets on the west elevation of the grade II-listed building also needed Maysand’s craftsmanship:

“The turrets had been repaired in the past with reinforced concrete — possibly back in the 1920s — and rebuilt under the direction of Charles M Hadfield, the grandson of Cathedral's original architect, Matthew Hadfield,” explains MD Bryn Lisle.

“But since then the steel had corroded and expanded in the concrete, fracturing the masonry around it and we had to find a way to repair that. So we replaced the reinforced bars with stainless steel and reinstated the concrete. It was quite a complex technique.”

Chartered surveyor Ian Norris of Cassidy and Ashton was involved in selecting Maysand for the project:

“On a project like this, the choice of contractor has to be partly based on their track record, because you can’t know the extent of the work on a church spire until you actually get up there,” he explains.

“In the end, from a shortlist of two we chose Maysand because we had a good feeling about the company; about the projects they had worked on before, the results they had achieved and the pride they took in their work — in interview that really came across. And, though it wasn’t the deciding factor, the price was right too.”

Ian is delighted with Maysand’s work: “We’re happy and Salford Diocese is more than pleased with the way the project was handled. We made the right choice with Maysand.”

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Images (right): restoration underway on Salford Cathedral's spire; and (below) after the project