The burden of repairing and maintaining a place of worship weighs more heavily on some than on others. In order to help target resources, English Heritage is working to understand the factors which make a building hard to manage and to find out where the buildings most in need are and why.
What makes a place of worship in need?
The age of the building
In urban areas particularly, places of worship are likely to have been built during a relatively short period in the 19th century and the stonework, the slates and leadwork on the roofs are therefore wearing out simultaneously after around 150 years' exposure to weather and pollution.
Demographic changes
Both urban and rural areas have seen dramatic changes in the size and composition of their populations since their historic places of worship were built.These changes, along with the general decline in traditional religious observance,mean that some very small congregations are now responsible for some very big buildings.
Lack of support
There are far fewer clergy than in the past and they often have several buildings in their care.
Yet looking after historic buildings is not necessarily part of their vocation and they are not specifically trained to do it. In rural areas the loss of the local ‘squirearchy’ has robbed places of worship not just of the help that they and their employees gave but also of their traditional patronage.
Lack of money
Most places of worship are funded very largely by their congregations and the local community and receive little if any money from central sources. Historic places of worship in economically depressed places are therefore likely to be poor, too.
Interactive map
The Interactive Map shows one example of how to map need. Working with survey results from the Church of England's Research and Statistics Department,we have estimated the number of parishes that in 2003 had outstanding necessary.
There is one kind of pressure not indicated by this map. The expansion of towns and cities to engulf surrounding villages means that some small churches are now bursting at the seams.
There is huge pressure to enlarge or replace these buildings. This sort of exercise cannot account for the individual circumstances of every parish, which are hidden beneath the statistics. It cannot tell us about the levels of energy and commitment of local people who often achieve extraordinary things. What it can do is point us in the direction of those areas of the country likely to benefit most from maintenance schemes, from dedicated support officers and from a strategic approach to historic places of worship.