Steeplejacks on St Mary's Spire 

Recently one of the lightning conductors at the top of our spire was repaired. Thanks to John Mumford for this close up of the steeplejack at the top of the spire.

Below is taken form an account by Steve Hasler:
Late in 2025 it was noticed that the part of the lightning conductor for St Mary’s had come away from the weathervane at the top of the steeple, the weathervane is the highest point of the lightning conductor. The conductor consists of a thick copper strap which runs from the weathervane down to earth on both the north and south sides of the steeple.  About 1m below the vane, the cabling on the northern side had become disconnected.  Investigation with a drone allowed the repair to be detailed although this also made it clear that we needed to get up to the top of the steeple. The work was done by Summit Steeplejacks who fixed a series of ladders from the nave roof up the spire.  Once they had reached the top, the re-connection took only about 15 minutes but getting there was not a trivial task! 

St Mary’s still had lightning protection via the cabling running down the south side of the spire and now it is, once again, fully functional. The spire was last hit by lightning on 5th May 2023, the conductor drawing the huge energy away from neighbouring buildings.  A number of electronic components in the church tower and church were damaged in this strike, as were Internet routers and other electronics in neighbouring properties.  However, without the lightning conductor the energy from the strike would have gone into the fabric of the tower causing a great deal of damage and creating a large safety risk to anyone below, and would likely have also resulted in damage to the fabric of some nearby buildings.  In 2023, the lightning strike was the first flash of lightning in the rainstorm and so there was no warning.  Saffron Walden’s lightning protection is now fully back in place!  Looking back through our records, the previous lightning strike on the church spire was in about 1998, 25 years earlier.  

Some photos taken by a passer-by - click on each to enlarge: