A church building that is in need of more than a lick of paint went under the hammer at auction this month with a guide price of just £25,000 but it sold for a figure much bigger than that.

St Hilda’s CE Mission is located in remote Hollingworth Fold near Hollingworth Lake which is a short drive - around 30 minutes - from Oldham.

It closed in the late 1990s and has laid empty since. In the time that has passed since then, the church has fallen into a state of disrepair and now has smashed windows, broken roof tiles and weeds growing up the outside. The building has no vehicle access.

The 7,800 ft site still has some life left in it and it’s suitable for various future uses including possible development potential, subject to any necessary planning consents.

The Oldham Times: The view from St Hilda’s CE Mission churchThe view from St Hilda’s CE Mission church (Image: Pugh)

The property is accessed via a private road accessible from Skyes Road, off Rakewood Road.

The church is a mile from Littleborough and five miles from Rochdale.

Property auctioneer Pugh revealed that the former church actually sold for £172,000.

A spokesperson from Pugh Auctions said: “We pride ourselves on transparent pricing that purposefully sparks buyer interest. But usually, when we set a property at a guide price of £25,000 we definitely don’t predict a final sale value of over £170,000.

“But we can’t say we’re too surprised, competitive bidding is part and parcel with online auctions, and this is certainly a unique property that buyers were inevitably going to grow attached to (if you’re into that sort of thing).

“We had 20 bidders and 130 bids in total, which was well above our expectations. However, I think that if it wasn’t ‘spooky season’ we might not have seen such high interest. 

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“Given all the property’s news coverage leading up to the auction, it's very possible that first-time bidders with an interest in spooky stuff saw the abandoned church and liked the concept of owning their own ‘cabin in the woods’ so much that it bumped the price right up.

“Excitement runs very high on auction days, let alone when there are as many as 20 bidders competing. It makes sense that passionate paranormal fans could create a bidding frenzy big enough to result in this jaw-dropping sale price.

“Back in May 2022, we saw a haunted mill sold for £19,000 over guide price. Whilst that isn’t quite as substantial as the church, it definitely evidences a pattern of buyer demand for spooky stuff.”

To find more properties for auction, visit the Pugh Auctions website.