Historic items salvaged after major church fire in Leicester

The fire, which Leicestershire and Rescue Fire Service said was thought to have started accidentally, destroyed much of the church.Amias said once it had been extinguished, she and colleagues were able to enter and see what they could recover.The 164-year-old church’s paper archive was found in a cupboard.”It was really close to the fire,” Amias said.”It really is amazing what has survived.”She said the archive had “a smoky smell” but was not affected by soot or the water from the firefighting effort.It consisted of boxes and bags of paperwork and photographs with large ledgers containing wedding banns, birth and death records.Amias said: “It’s clear that the church has always been fundraising. “In that way nothing changes but it [the church] ran schools in the past and ran mission rooms around the city as well.”There’s even tickets and programmes for The Little Theatre [in Leicester] going back to the 1960s.”We wouldn’t want to lose these historic treasures.”Once it’s gone, there’s no other version somewhere, so it’s important for us and into the future as well.”Staff from the record office have held an initial visit to the church and intend to take away and catalogue them in their archive in Wigston, Amias said.