English Heritage and support for cathedrals

Over the past 19 years our Cathedral Grants Scheme, most recently run in partnership with the Wolfson Foundation, has given just over £52 million in grants for repair works to English cathedrals. English Heritage remains committed to working to support these wonderful buildings and so whilst this dedicated scheme is coming to an end, cathedrals will still remain eligible to apply to English Heritage for grants towards the costs of repair works in the future.

During 2009/10 English Heritage and the Wolfson Foundation are providing grants of some £2.6m for 23 projects to repair works being undertaken at 22 cathedrals. Whilst this is the final year of the grant scheme dedicated exclusively to cathedrals, as some of the finest buildings in England, Europe and probably the world, they will of course remain eligible to apply to English Heritage for grants and English Heritage expects to continue making a number of grants to them over the coming years.

Over the 19 years of the dedicated scheme, just over £52 million in grant has been provided which has helped to reduce the major backlog of problems identified by the English Heritage fabric survey in 1991. English cathedrals, both Anglican and Catholic, have undertaken an astonishing amount of repair work in that time, in excess of £250m worth, as well as spending very significant further sums on developing their facilities for visitors, whether worshippers or not.

English Heritage is gradually simplifying its grant schemes, reducing their number so that the limited resources we have available can be targeted to the greatest priorities faced by the historic environment. Our Heritage at Risk initiative is the critical evidence base for this and the cathedral fabric survey being undertaken at the moment, for which results will be published in early December, will help us identify which cathedrals are at risk of loss of historic fabric and so make sure we target funding where it is most needed. Almost all cathedrals are in much better condition than at the beginning of the cathedrals grant scheme and have completed their urgent works, although there remains further work which it will be important to continue with.

English Heritage remains committed to working to support these wonderful buildings. We are currently undertaking a new survey of the condition of England’s cathedrals, part-funding a new visitor survey and launching a publication about new work in cathedrals.

Whilst this dedicated scheme is coming to an end, cathedrals will remain eligible to apply to English Heritage for grants towards the costs of repair works in the future. This money will come from regional grants allocations and so cathedrals will be considered alongside other buildings at risk in their region for funding.

The dedicated Repair Grants for Registered Places of Worship (RGRPOW) scheme, which covers churches and places of worship apart from cathedrals, will continue. This is run in conjunction with the Heritage Lottery Fund.

Cathedral fabric survey

EH undertook a fabric survey in 1991 and as a response set up a Cathedral Grants Scheme to help address the urgent needs of Anglican and RC Cathedrals, taking into account the new controls and regulations set up by the 1990 Care of Cathedrals Measure (Anglican).

A second survey was undertaken in 2001 which showed that most critically urgent works were complete but that support was still needed to complete the backlog of repairs that remained. The scheme continued with the annual funding available set at £1m. This scheme was set to close in 2007. In response to concerns expressed by The Association of English Cathedrals it did not stop in 2007 but instead became a partnership with the Wolfson Foundation to offer up to £1m per year from each organisation (English Heritage and the Wolfson Foundation) for works in the years from 2007 to 2009.

In order to review the current situation English Heritage, the Roman Catholic Patrimony Committee and the Association of English Cathedrals are working together to re-run the Cathedral Fabric Survey and consultants have nearly completed their research. This work will be completed by December 2009, funded by English Heritage, under the supervision of a steering group including representatives from the Anglican and Roman Catholic Cathedrals and the Cathedral Architects Association. The results of this will help English Heritage assess which cathedrals have fabric most in need of urgent repair, and will focus future resources where they are most needed.

New Works in Cathedrals

English Heritage is financing and publishing an illustrated report on high quality new works in both Anglican and RC cathedrals. The project has been overseen by the same steering group as for the Fabric Survey and illustrates 16 projects, showing how exemplary new work has been completed since the millennium within the context of the historic fabric and setting of cathedrals. The types of work illustrated are everything from major new visitor facilities through to the provision of disabled access and fire doors. This publication will be launched, alongside the fabric survey results, in December 2009.

Visitor Survey

A visitor survey was undertaken by Anglican cathedrals in 2004 and English Heritage has now made a grant (£15k) to help the Association of English Cathedrals to undertake a further survey. It is planned that the results will be available in December 2009 and launched alongside the fabric survey and new works document.