Crown of Thorns in Linlithgow restored to its golden glory

In the 60 years since, it’s fair to say the spire – which proudly towers above St Michael’s Parish Church – has grown on local folk.

As well as becoming a landmark in its own right, as instantly recognisable as Linlithgow’s historic Palace, it is also now an emblem for many of its organisations.

In 2020, when suspicions arose that the fixings on the cladding may be loose, it was not a health and safety issue the church could ignore.

So a cherry picker was employed to inspect one section of the crown; the inspection team discovered some of its timber construction was rotting away as a result of rain penetrating the cladding.

With costs to remove the structure estimated at more than £200,000 and the uproar that would cause, the church instead launched Aspire in January 2022.

Headed up by Alan Miller and project manager Brian Lightbody, Aspire’s aim was to raise the funds needed to do the work – the final tally is £400,000 plus 20 per cent VAT, which the church will be able to claim back.

With a lot of hard work, and a tremendous amount of support and donations from the local community, the fundraising team managed to raise £220,000.

The remainder of the funds were secured via grant funding, with £90,000 from Historic Environment Scotland, £40,000 from the Church of Scotland general trustees, £30,000 from the Scottish Landfill Communities Fund and £10,000 from the Pilgrim Trust.

With all the funding and planning permissions in place, the next challenge was finding contractors suitably skilled to take on such a unique project.

Pollock Hammond in Linlithgow was employed as the architect while the structural engineering was completed by Blyth and Blyth from Edinburgh – the same firm that was employed on the 1964 project.

Following tender, the lead and cladding contract was awarded to Matheson Ltd of Falkirk. Run by Gordon Matheson, incredibly it was also his grandfather and father, Tom and Harry, who completed the work to cover the spire with its gold anodised aluminium covering back in 1964!

ADPC of Edinburgh was appointed to replace sections of the timber structure with new blocks of laminated baltic pine.

Once the scaffolding was erected in July 2023, Matheson’s and ADPC worked tirelessly together to ensure all of the very many complex pieces fell into place – in all weathers – with the timber completed in March and the cladding finished last week.

Brian explained: “The Crown of Thorns was designed to be gold but the original colour wore off within about five years.

“We wanted to ensure the material we used would not wash off with time. We found two companies who made a bronze alloy – used in £2 and £1 coins so it’s pretty tough – that fit the bill.

“However, one of the company’s bought over the other; we were told it might take months to get a supply.

“Luckily, Gordon Matheson was able to find one potential supplier in Europe who had just enough in stock to do the job.

“Work started in August last year and the contractors quickly discovered there was much more rot in the timbers than we first thought.

“That meant it would take longer to fix; it was also like a huge game of Jenga – they had to be careful which timbers to take out to make sure it didn’t collapse around their ears. The sequencing was really important but they did an incredible job on a very complex puzzle with amazing craftsmanship.

“They also had to contend with shorter days in the winter and storms – the tower is really exposed so winds of 90mph are not ideal!

“However, the structural engineer is confident that the Crown of Thorns is as strong now as it was in 1964.

“It should see us all off as it has a life-span of at least 80 years and, thanks to the new cladding, it should retain its golden colour too.”

Almost every bit as complex as the project itself, the fundraising was no mean feat either.

Any lingering doubt the Crown of Thorns still had detractors 60 years after it was erected were finally put to bed – with locals rallying to support Aspire.

Back in January 2022, it was difficult to know exactly how much needed to be raised and, with rising construction costs, it was a moveable feast.

However, having helped to amass £220,000 to bring the project to completion, it is clear that locals are proud of their Crown of Thorns.

Alan said: “We had two very generous private donations which got us up and running with £50,000.

“We held a silent auction in St Margaret’s Hall that brought in £16,000 and a sports nights in the Rose Club went down really well too – all of our events were really well supported.

“People also started organising their own events with​​​​​​​ concerts by local groups​​​​​​​ and Chris Long from the Civic Trust designing Crown of Thorns tea towels, which raised £3000.

“​​​​​​​The number of individual donations was incredible too – it’s testimony to how hugely fond people now are of the Crown of Thorns.”