PLUMBER Shaun Higgins wasn’t expecting to come face-to-face with the past.

It was a cold January day and the Highworth plumber was touring Christ Church with the Old Town church’s warden. Shaun had been brought in to refit the church’s century-old heating system.

The pair discovered a dusty plaque mounted beside the old heating system. It announced that the chunky cast iron heating system had been fitted by Old Town firm Bays & Co., Wood Street, in 1906.

“It was a bit of a shock,” said Shaun.

The 33-year-old plumber is now the managing director of Edward Bays Ltd – the same firm that installed the original heating system 111 years ago.

Shaun said: “I couldn’t believe it. You hear of so many firms going out of business, but here you have a plumbing company fitting a heating system for Christ Church in 1906 and then coming back to update it 111 years later.

“It was a surprising find.”

The plumber said that the firm had had to remove quite a lot of the old cast iron pipework.

“The new pipes are copper and we’ve installed a much more modern system.”

Once based in Wood Street, Bays & Co. is now based in Highworth – and was rechristened Edward Bays Ltd. Now managing director, Shaun has worked at the company since he was 18. His father started as an apprentice at the firm in 1970 at the age of 14.

Shaun and the churchwardens at Christ Church have installed a new plaque beside the original.

Canon Simon Stevenette, minister at Christ Church, said: “It’s very exciting. It’s all part of the history of Christ Church.”

The church, which was built in the 1850s, re-opened in spring after a programme of restoration work.

“It’s given us a flexible building, with a level floor, new lighting and heating. Every day you come in and think, what a wonderful building,” he said.