Birch Church campaigners to stage silent protest to save building

The Birch Church Save Our Spire (SOS) group is hoping as many 200 people will show up on the grounds of St Peter’s Church on Wednesday as they look to dissuade the Diocese of Chelmsford from going ahead with the demolition.

Since 1990, the church has been redundant and previous attempts to buy and restore the building fell through in 2014.

Listed buildings normally need to be de-listed by a local authority before they are demolished, but the Church of England has what is known as an ecclesiastical exemption, meaning it can go ahead with knocking down St Peter’s if it is deemed financially unviable to restore.

Loess Overbury-Tapper, the co-chair of the SOS campaign, said the 134 respondents to a recent survey of Birch residents showed there was strong opposition to St Peter’s’ demolition, with 118 people saying the church should be saved.

Determined – Loess Overbury-Tapper said the church is of architectural importance to the village (Image: Loess Overbury-Tapper)

The 59-year-old, who has lived in Birch for 23 years, argued it would be wrong to knock down a building of such historical significance to the village, adding she hoped people would come out to support the cause.

She said: “We want to make a strong point, causing minimal disturbance to local residents, and we want to take a photographic record of how people feel about it.

“A silent protest is evidence that people feel strongly about it in the village – the spire can be seen for miles around, and if you Google Birch the image that comes up is of the spire.

“People rightly feel we should not be demolishing Grade II listed buildings at a time when we should be saving the planet.”

The Diocese, meanwhile has plans to build a footprint on the remains of the church – should it be demolished – as well as a memorial garden.