Cheshire Cycleway
Wybunbury church tower
by Alec and Val Scaresbrook
Wybunbury (pronounced wynbry) boasts a 96ft (29m) tower without a church. Why? The tower, with church attached, was built in the late 15th century but underground springs caused subsidence, so that the church had to be rebuilt five times. At one stage, in the 1830s, the top of the tower was nearly six feet out of true, which was corrected by digging out clay from beneath the structure so that it moved back.
Finally, in 1976, St Chad's church was pulled down. By this time, the tower was four feet out of true again and a specialist firm (who have also worked on the Tower of Pisa in Italy) jacked up the tower, placed new foundations beneath it, and left it with a deliberate lean (about two feet out of true), to remain in character. This was completed in 1989.
Find this place marked in the centre of this map.