The final piece in the Chester Cathedral in LEGO project has been put in place after an eight-year build that has raised around £250k for cathedral funds.
Ten-year-old Thomas was the lucky final builder who assembled the flagpole and installed it, after winning a draw to put the final brick in the build.
The Chester Cathedral in LEGOstarted in April 2015 at an investment of £88,000 and has been overseen by a group of dedicated volunteers who together have helped raise around £300,000 through brick sales and donations. So far most of this has been invested in the Education Trust and the cathedral values the investment at around £250,000.
The final number of bricks in the model is approximately 275,000.
During the final install, Thomas met Pete Waterman OBE at the Cathedral’s Making Tracks 3 installation, took a tour to the top of the tower and was presented with a LEGO cake.
While the build is complete, the project is ongoing. During the summer some of the volunteers will be back trying to raise more money for the Education Trust. They will be selling bricks to build some of the internal features of the model, which can’t normally be seen when the model is closed. These features will be displayed alongside the model.
A spokesperson for the cathedral said:
“The model is very popular with our visitors, not only with LEGO enthusiasts, and it has proved a good talking point over the years.
“It not only shows the extent of the Cathedral but it also allows visitors to orientate themselves within the building.
“The work of the volunteers will be ongoing as the model will need regular maintenance including dusting and running repairs, especially to the areas vulnerable to little fingers and the occasional rogue pigeon.”
Chester is one of a number of cathedrals which have LEGO projects to raise funds, including Durham, Exeter and St Edmundsbury. Durham Cathedral’s project took three years to build – from 2013 – 2016 – and consists of 300,000 bricks. At the time, it was the largest LEGO model ever built by the general public and every brick was sold for £1 to support the transformation of the cathedral’s museum.
