03-11-2025 · 7 min read
Tower Reopens to Visitors: A New Chapter for St Mary's
The removal of scaffolding from the tower of St Mary's marked a moment of celebration for the entire Warwick community. After an extensive programme of restoration, the tower stands revealed in its full splendour, with repaired stonework, gleaming clock faces, restored pinnacles, and freshly painted heraldic shields. As noted by Visit Warwick, the town's tourism hub, the reopening of the tower and its 160-step climb to the viewing platform is expected to be a significant draw for visitors to the area.
The reopening represents far more than the completion of a building project. It signals the culmination of years of planning, fundraising, and community effort that brought together donors, volunteers, heritage organisations, and skilled craftspeople in a shared endeavour to preserve one of the most recognisable landmarks in the West Midlands.
The Restored Tower
Visitors climbing the tower for the first time since the restoration will notice the difference immediately. The stonework, which had become blackened and pitted in places, has been carefully cleaned and repaired without altering the warm natural colour that gives the tower its distinctive character. Mortar joints that had crumbled or washed out have been repointed using lime-based mortars that match the original materials in composition and appearance.
The clock faces, which had accumulated layers of grime and poorly matched replacement glass over the decades, have been restored to their 1902 appearance. The gilded numerals and copper hands now catch the light as they were designed to do, making the time legible from considerable distance. The Cambridge Quarters chime, the hourly strike, and the carillon melodies all continue to sound on schedule, their mechanisms having been inspected and serviced as part of the overall project.
Perhaps the most visible change from ground level is the restoration of the twelve heraldic shields near the top of the tower. These shields, which had faded to near-invisibility over three centuries, now display their original colours with striking clarity, adding a decorative richness to the tower's profile that had been lost for generations.
A New Augmented Reality Experience
Alongside the physical restoration, the reopening of the tower coincided with the launch of a new augmented reality heritage experience. Developed by a local technology company, the experience uses iPads positioned within the church to bring the building's history to life through interactive 3D models and narrated stories.
Visitors can explore different aspects of the church's architecture and history, with narration that was partly scripted and recorded by local schoolchildren, ensuring that the experience speaks to younger audiences as well as adult visitors. A 3D-printed scale model of the church serves as a focal point for the experience, allowing visitors to zoom into specific areas of the building and access layers of historical information.
What the Future Holds
The completion of the tower restoration does not mark the end of the campaign's work. Historic buildings require ongoing care, and the experience gained through Campaign 2023 has underscored the importance of regular maintenance programmes to prevent the kind of cumulative deterioration that necessitated the major intervention just completed.
The campaign team has indicated that plans are being developed for a long-term maintenance fund, supported by the Order of St Mary and ongoing community fundraising, to ensure that the investment made in the tower's restoration is protected for decades to come. The tower, having been returned to its former glory through the combined efforts of so many, will now benefit from a more structured approach to its ongoing care.
For visitors to Warwick, the reopened tower offers something that has been unavailable for some time: the chance to climb 160 steps to a viewing platform that provides panoramic views across the town, Warwick Castle, and the rolling Warwickshire countryside. It is a perspective that has been shared by generations of visitors and residents, and one that Campaign 2023 has ensured will continue to be enjoyed for many more to come.