From Christina’s Perspective:
You notice it from a distance and you just feel compelled to look a little closer. Is that church spire really leaning and crooked or is it my imagination? It looks to be spiraling out of control. What the heck? Did the build it that way or did something happen to cause it to warp over time??? Inquiring minds want to know.
The “Crooked Spire” is located at the top of the Parish Church of St. Mary and All Saints in Chesterfield, Derbyshire and it is a unique sight to behold. The spire is 240 feet high and was added to the church around 1362. It is, in fact, twisted and leaning. It is twisting 45 degrees and leaning 9 ft 6 in from it’s true center. But why? How did it get twisted & off center?
It was originally thought the leaning was a result of the craftsmen not finishing the job properly……The plague, or Black Death, arrived in Chesterfield and the craftsmen fled the town for fear of their lives and then the people who took over weren’t as skilled and it was thought that over a period of 300 years the flaws began to show. Interesting theory….
It is now believed that the twisting was actually caused by the lead tiles that cover the spire. The sun shines on the south side of the tower and heats the lead up, causing that side to expand at a greater rate than that of the north side of the tower. Since the spire would have been built of unseasoned wood, this heating and expanding process has warped the spire over time…… To compound the problem, the weight of the lead tiles (approximately 50 tons of lead sheeting) is more than what the spire’s bracing was originally designed for, so as it has expanded and contracted and slowly twisted, it also began to lean.
The spire structure is an oak frame and is clad in lead (the original spire was probably covered in oak shingles). The spire is not actually attached to the top of the stone tower. Where the stone tower and wooden spire meet, there are no apparent fixings, so the spire merely sits balanced on the top of the tower. So you can see why the twisting and leaning could have easily happened over time.
On a side note……
We have been seeing churches all over England with the graveyards surrounding the church. We found out a little more about them while visiting the Crooked Spire Church. From the 10th century, it was the practice to bless one acre of land around a church for burial purposes. “God’s Acre” came to be regarded as a reminder of our physical mortality and at the same time evoke prayers for the faithfully departed.
The number of burials in the Chesterfield churchyard is estimated to be as many as 20,000. The ground level became raised as additional graves were stacked over existing ones. This led to the floor of the church actually being lower than the churchyard outside and they had to excavate a small ditch around the church to protect the church from water damage.
belladomani.wordpress.com 
One Comment Add yours