{"id":679044,"date":"2026-07-07T19:14:07","date_gmt":"2026-07-07T19:14:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/679044\/"},"modified":"2026-07-07T19:14:07","modified_gmt":"2026-07-07T19:14:07","slug":"like-a-miracle-hidden-gold-saves-lancashire-church-from-closure-lancashire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/679044\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Like a miracle\u2019: hidden gold saves Lancashire church from closure | Lancashire"},"content":{"rendered":"

Unable to raise the \u00a3750,000 needed for urgent repairs, St Wilfrid\u2019s church in the town of Melling, Lancashire<\/a>, looked likely to shut its doors after more than 700 years.<\/p>\n

But on Good Friday the church was saved from closure by the discovery, in a plastic bag hidden under the altar, of a box with nine gold Britannia coins worth nearly \u00a330,000.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just burst into tears when we saw it,\u201d the Rev Jane Lee, 54, told the Times.<\/p>\n

She and a parishioner found the bag while preparing the church for morning prayers. \u201cWe couldn\u2019t believe it,\u201d she said. \u201cIt was like a miracle because it\u2019s so desperately needed for the church.\u201d<\/p>\n

Produced by the Royal Mint in 1999, the nine coins had a face value of \u00a3100 each but sold for almost \u00a330,000. \u201cWe were both absolutely flabbergasted,\u201d Lee said.<\/p>\n

The coins were accompanied by a note written on Salvation Army paper and dated 16 July 2022, 11am. \u201cHi there, I\u2019d like to donate these nine gold Britannias to Melling church,\u201d it read, and it was signed from \u201cJames, servant of the living God\u201d.<\/p>\n

The benefactor has yet to be identified, despite efforts by church and diocesan officials. Similar gifts were left to at least two other churches in Lancashire in 2022.<\/p>\n

Gold coins were found in the donation box of a church in Hornby and left behind the door of another in Quernmore. Lee believes that the coins at St Wilfrid\u2019s were left by the same anonymous donor four years ago and lay undiscovered until now.<\/p>\n

St Wilfrid\u2019s was in the process of closing when the gold was discovered, according to Lee. The church, which has a congregation of only five, was in need of \u00a3750,000 for repairs to the roof, stained glass windows and other parts of the building. \u201cWe were struggling to keep our doors open,\u201d Lee said.<\/p>\n

She said the gold coins were \u201cthe answer to their prayers\u201d and would be used as a \u201cseed\u201d to apply for future grants and fundraising campaigns to complete the necessary repairs.<\/p>\n

The current building of St Wilfrid\u2019s dates to the 14th century, though a church has probably been on the site since before 1066.<\/p>\n

Following the discovery, a heritage group has also been set up to help with repair costs. \u201cThat gives us hope, because it\u2019s now not just the little congregation fighting to make this happen,\u201d Lee said. \u201cWe\u2019ve got a wider community behind us who are willing to help.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Right Rev Philip North<\/a>, the bishop of Blackburn, said the gift was a \u201csign of hope\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt shows how loved the building is,\u201d he said. \u201cIt shows that when we trust, God will provide. It would be an absolute tragedy for this church to close. This gift has doubled our determination to restore it for the benefit of the whole community.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Unable to raise the \u00a3750,000 needed for urgent repairs, St Wilfrid\u2019s church in the town of Melling, Lancashire,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":679045,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-679044","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/679044","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=679044"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/679044\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/679045"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=679044"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=679044"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=679044"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}