THE Eleventh-century Church of St John the Baptist, Edlington, in Northumberland, has required one other emergency intervention, after flooding for the second time in three months.
Heavy rainfall has caused a blocked pipe and two streams that diverge near the church to overflow, causing serious water damage to the church’s floors and stonework.
“Thankfully, the second flooding wasn’t as bad as the primary, as we feared it’d occur again, so took a lot of precautions,” the Revd Gill Lonsdale, a retired priest in the world, said this week. “The water is now evaporating, and we now need some superb weather to assist us open the doors and dry all of it out.”
Mrs Lonsdale said that the primary incident of flooding in December, a foot high, had meant that the planned carol service on 23 December had been cancelled. “This was especially disappointing, as we had planned for it to be the primary service there since before the Covid-19 pandemic.”
The church, which is in an isolated community, is now in a united benefice with St Michael and All Angels, Felton. “It’s an expensive little church, but we could do with a number of strong men to assist with the sandbags,” Mrs Lonsdale said.
The parish team is now taking a look at flood-defence planning, reminiscent of re-siting the church’s entrance and constructing a brick wall at its lower end, where there’s a slope that gathers water. Other conversations have included an area farmer, and the council, to handle the continuing drainage issues.
The hope is that St John’s will reopen this summer, in time for a patronal festival service there in June involving all seven churches within the benefice.
