See Wrexham from a different viewpoint and book your St. Giles tower tour! (Plus church hosts town forum meeting)

There’s a chance to see Wrexham from a different view this summer, with a series of trips to the top of one of the town’s most iconic landmarks.

Wrexham.com was invited to St Giles as part of the now travelling Town Centre Forum meeting, and after an hour and a half of meeting business we enjoyed the genuinely tremendous hospitality of the Rev Dr Jason Bray and volunteers. What can only be described as a wonderful buffet spread, which we are told is quite commonly provided, was followed by a brief guided tour of the church and then a trip up the famed tower.

Reading through the visitors book showed a global spread of travellers, with nearly 27,000 people welcomed in 2017 alone.

Excluding any repair or building costs it is budgeted to cost £330 a day in 2018 to run the church. Forum members were told there was no government or similar public funding on offer nor from ‘the church’ as many expect, and the church is reliant on income from fees and charges, collections at services and various donations and fundraising activities.

St Giles is the only Grade I listed building in the town centre, and being 180 feet long, we think that makes it bigger than St Asaph’s cathedral.

Yesterday evening we were told the story of how St Giles could have been the inspiration for the towers of Westminster in London, with the Elizebeth Tower housing ‘Big Ben’ having elements of the Wrexham tower, and the Victoria tower bearing the strongest resemblance. Architect Augustus Pugin stayed locally in Chirk Castle prior to the London construction project, and although there is no direct documentary evidence for the link, the resemblance is striking.

Other trivia included the stat that there are 62 trees in the church yard, that is one of the largest town centre green areas.

Rev Dr Jason Bray spoke of the range of events, including the expected 230 services a year, with a further 60 concerts and recitals. On top the ‘busiest church in Wales’ provides 750 cooked two course meals to members of a regular Lunch Club, 80 hours of play services to youngsters, 20 hours of ‘dads and children’ time, 50 hours of Memory Cafe helping those with dementia and their carers, plus over 50 hours of activity groups for older people.

Several small conferences have been held at the church, and with flexible space and an upper level space Dr Bray pointed out it was possible to hire the spaces for meetings or similar events.

The range of volunteers was also mentioned, with an estimated 6500 volunteer hours being tallied up for 2017 alone.

St Giles, also known as Wrexham Parish Church locally, are offering four more dates for tower tours this season as listed below, at a charge of £4 per person. Access to the church itself is free to all ‘on a point of principle’.

Saturday 30th June
Saturday 28th July
Saturday 25th August
Saturday 29th September

To reserve a place call 01978 292015 (10am-4pm Monday to Friday) or email [email protected] to check availability and to book. Places are on a first come first served basis, and we are told prebooking is ‘highly recommended’.