Appraisal and repair of St Peter’s at the Cross, Chester

A Grade I listed fourteenth-century church was found on appraisal to suffer a major intrinsic stability deficiency. The nave arcades were spreading, causing the eastern gable to lean outwards over a busy road. This article records the appraisal of the building, its assessment, the design of repairs, and evaluation of the works execution. Thrust-line equilibrium assessments are used to determine force magnitude and position in the masonry. Nineteenth-century stabilisation works to the north arcade formed a blueprint for repair of the remaining arcades. A key learning point was the deformation of the gable under significantly less pre-load in the temporary repair than the calculations predicted, and the authors relate this to the real-time displacement of force position inside the wall.