Maintenance

One of the keys to ensuring the long-term future of historic places of worship is regular maintenance. Unfortunately this essential work is sometimes neglected, forgotten or done badly, leading to problems with buildings that require expensive repair. English Heritage would like to see a number of local or regional maintenance schemes set up to provide a basic service to individual congregations.

 Maintenance schemes make it easier for congregations to arrange gutter clearance and other minor works and if properly organised will minimise the cost to each congregation. As part of the Inspired! campaign, English Heritage is keen to assist third parties to get such schemes up-and-running, to the point where they are self-supporting. In recent years we have been involved with three pilot schemes. Work to evaluate the pilots and to formulate a model scheme (or schemes) which can be replicated will be done in 2008-09, with a view to starting some new schemes in 2010-11.

The pilot maintenance schemes which English Heritage has funded over the last few years have provided useful experience and you can find out more about two of them on their websites: Gloucester Diocese Scheme and London Diocese Scheme

Meanwhile, we are contributing to the annual costs of the Faith in Maintenance training programme, run by the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings.

 The Good Maintenance Guide is a practical handbook to help volunteers care for & preserve historic places of worship. Produced as part of the Faith in Maintenance project, it is available from the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings (SPAB)

by calling:
020 7456 0913

or writing to:
Faith in Maintenance,
37 Spital Square,
London
E1 6DY.

You can also order online via the SPAB website.