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The congregation of one Greater Manchester church needs more than divine intervention to save it. The 443-year-old listed building is creaking - due a death watch beetle infestation.

Now St Wilfrid's in Market Place, Standish, Wigan , has been added to the Heritage at Risk Register due to the wood-boring insects damaging its decorative timber ceilings.

The church is the only Grade I listed church in Wigan, dating from the 1580s, and represents a rare example of late 16th-century ecclesiastical architecture. The building is particularly significant for its innovative use of Tuscan columns in the nave and chancel arcades, believed to be the earliest application of this classical order in England. St Wilfrid's in Standish, Wigan, has been added to the government at risk r

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