20 Year Vision Leads To Unique Church Restoration

Published: 14th September 2015

An ambition going back decades has led to the stunning restoration of a large, derelict Grade II church into 82 studio apartments, many completely within the original early 18^th Century church building, with more than 200 windows made from the Spectus Elite 70 system.

Lyndon Forshaw of restoration specialists the Forshaw Group explained: “I’ve been driving past the church for as long as I can remember, seeing it deteriorate over the last 20 years, and I always thought it would be great to be able to rescue and redevelop it.”

To the passer-by, the former Holy Trinity Church in the centre of Bolton looks as it has for nearly two centuries. The entire exterior has been kept virtually intact, including its highly ornate stained glass windows, with apartments created entirely within the original shell, as well as many others in a bespoke modern building at the back of the church.

An integral part of the restoration is more than 200 high-specification windows using the Spectus Elite 70 bevelled system, which were used in both the restored church and the adjoining new building. Because of the unique construction of the building within a building, many of windows in the church actually look out onto the original windows from the inside. The white and grey casements were fabricated and installed by Jade Windows of Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, on the recommendation of main contractor Colbre Projects.

“It was a privilege for us to be involved with this restoration project,” said Ryan Fozard of Jade Windows. “The windows and doors we installed looked marvellous against the old building and make a feature on the envelope of the new modern build.”

Lyndon Forshaw, whose father was actually one of the bell ringers at Holy Trinity, concluded: “I always loved the church building in the first place and when we were offered the chance to acquire it only then began to look at how we could make it viable and the type of development that would work.”