From Steal To Steel

IT was hardly one of those open and shut cases when thieves carried a pair of antique gates away from a Littlehampton church.

Convincingly dressed in overalls, the three men were watched as they lifted the heavy, ornate gates off and then struggled with them to a waiting vehicle in broad daylight.

The only witness, an office worker in a building opposite, thought nothing of the incident perhaps the gates were going away for repair or painting? But a few days later he read in the Littlehampton Gazette that they had been stolen, and the penny dropped.

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That was 19 months ago, and nothing more has been seen of the stolen gates, thought to date back to the early days of what is now Littlehampton United Church, which was built in 1861.

But the gap where the gates once hung is now adorned by a replacement pair, replicas of the originals.

Unlike the Victorian, cast iron gates, which were manufactured in Glasgow, the new ones were handmade just down the road, at Littlehampton's Riverside Industrial Estate.

Bob Fuller, the boss at R. S. Fuller architectural metalworkers, personally made the replacements from forged steel. It took six weeks and the cost was more than 10,000, paid for by the church's insurers.

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Robert Taunton, surveyor to the fabric at the church, oversaw the project and is delighted with the outcome.

"The new gates are absolutely brilliant, so close to the originals. We are very pleased with them."

Trevor Embleton, foreman at R. S. Fuller, said the gates were a change from the steelwork the company normally made for supermarkets and filling stations.

"Five or six years ago we actually repaired the original gates and I re-fitted them they were very heavy. The new ones are much more secure and the hinges have been welded over to stop the gates being lifted off."

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