Nine heritage sites 'no longer at risk' in region

Nine historical sites in north-west England, including a Victorian cemetery, have been taken off the Heritage At Risk Register but 13 have been added on to it.

Sites are added on to the annually released register when they are deemed to be at risk of neglect, decay or inappropriate development, Historic England said.

Flaybrick Memorial Gardens in Birkenhead, Wirral, is among those taken off the list after volunteers worked to restore the site.

Two Grade I listed churches in Wigan and Lancaster are among those added.

Claudia Kenyatta and Emma Squire, co-CEOs of Historic England, said: the sites removed highlighted the "benefits of working together in partnership, and with communities, to create positive, sustainable change".

Flaybrook Memorial Gardens is a Grade II listed High Victorian Gothic-style public cemetery, designed by renowned landscape architect, Edward Kemp in the 1800s who is buried in the grounds.

The site was placed on the Heritage at Risk Register due to the lack of a plan to address poor structural conditions, with many monuments obscured by overgrown vegetation.

Volunteers from Friends of Flaybrick cleared vegetation, restored headstones and established a maintenance programme, with support from Historic England and Wirral Council.

"This continuous conservation programme, led by the community, has delivered the restoration of an outstanding example of Victorian landscape design," Historic England said.

Significant progress was also said to have been made with the No.7 Bottle Shop in St Helens, Merseyside.

The Grade II listed building and Scheduled Monument, which operated from 1886, was left to deteriorate following the demolition of the wider Sherdley factory site in 1982.

Managed by the Cannington Shaw Preservation Trust Community Interest Company, the building has been restored and the plan is to use it as a community space.

Among those added to this year's register are the Church of St Wilfrid in Standish, Wigan, and the Priory and Parish Church of St Mary in Lancaster.

The Priory and Parish Church of St Mary is another Grade I listed building at risk due to subsidence affecting the alignment of its south aisle.

The church, dating from around 1430, was described by renowned architectural historian Nikolaus Pevsner as having "remarkable architectural details" with, about the most luxuriant canopies in the country".

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