PARISHIONERS who attend Stroud Congregational Church have been given a lift to help them attend services.

The church in Bedford Street is situated on the first floor above a function room, making it less accessible than most churches in the country.

For the past 30 years parishioners who were unable to climb the spiral stone staircase made use of a standard lift, until recently when it finally started to show its age and become very unreliable.

Church volunteer Kay Weaver said: “The lift had served us very well, but as it became more temperamental we took the decision to stop using it, on grounds of health and safety.

“We knew it would need some money spent on it, but when we received quotes in excess of £25,000 we were extremely shocked.”

Kay and the team knew they would have to find a cheaper option and started looking into the possibility of having a stairlift installed.

Dolphin Lifts Western took on the job and installed a Stannah Siena stairlift, specifically designed to wrap around the church’s stone spiral staircase.

The company’s director Tom Wakefield said: “This was certainly one of our more unusual installations, but working in conjunction with Stannah, we quickly put together a stairlift solution which would meet the requirements of Kay and her fellow parishioners.”

Dolphin Lifts’ experienced engineers Simon Andrews and Mark White were able to install the lift without any major alterations.

They were also able to ensure there was plenty of space for other stair users to pass by.

“The stairlift is just fantastic,” said Kay.

“We are grateful to Dolphin Lifts Western for finding such a cost-effective solution to our access problem.”