English Heritage Offers £1 Million for Repair of England's Cathedrals
English Heritage announced £1 million of grants for repairs to 25 cathedrals around the country on 26 January 2006.
This is the 16th round of grants since English Heritage's Cathedral Grants scheme was launched in 1991 when a survey revealed that the country's 61 cathedrals were facing a huge backlog of major repairs that they could not fund alone. Since then the scheme has contributed a grand total of £41.8 million towards the repair of some of England 's greatest buildings, ensuring that none of our cathedral churches are at risk.
This year, the largest six grants offers of between £51,000 and £100,000 go to the cathedrals of Carlisle, Coventry, Hereford, Lincoln, Salisbury and Durham for major masonry and roof repairs. Nineteen smaller grants of between £8,000 and £50,000 have been offered to projects as diverse as photogrammetric drawings of the central tower at Southwell Cathedral to inform future repairs (a technique which enables experts to obtain information about a building's condition by recording, measuring, and interpreting photographic images); replacement of the cloister drainage system at Norwich Church of England Cathedral; and repairs to the gables on the West Front of Peterborough Cathedral.
Simon Thurley, Chief Executive of English Heritage, said: "English Heritage is proud of our 16-year partnership with England's cathedrals which has ensured that, though in constant need of repair, they are no longer at serious risk of ruin and decay.
"In many ways, our parish churches and chapels are suffering from a similar back-log of repairs as our cathedrals were in 1991. To tackle this, English Heritage is launching in May this year a campaign, Inspired!, to galvanise the country into action to secure a future for all our historic church buildings.
"Anglican Cathedrals have close links to the parish churches in their Diocese and many Deans, of course, began their ministries in parish churches and still have great affection for them. The great buildings of which they are custodians stand amongst literally thousands of smaller but equally precious places of worship."
Carlisle Cathedral
Like many other medieval English cathedrals, the imposing red sandstone exterior of Carlisle Cathedral needs constant care to combat the ravages of time. This year English Heritage has offered the Dean and Chapter of Carlisle a grant of £58,000 towards a £97,000 project to repair the 14 th century east façade.
The English Heritage grant is helping to pay for works including the scaffolding of the upper east wall of the cathedral including the buttresses and pinnacles, the protection of the delicate 14 th century stained glass east windows while work is in progress, repairing half of the tracery stonework which holds the stained glass and the area above the east window, making "indent" repairs (cutting out corroded stonework and carving a new and almost identical piece to replace it), replacing crockets (decorative carvings), as well as re-pointing the rest of the masonry with lime mortar. New red sandstone for the repairs will be quarried from St Bees in Cumbria and the work is expected to take six months to complete.
The problem was first discovered in September 2000 when a section of the statue of St Peter on the east front of the cathedral fell off. A high-level inspection revealed that much of the ancient stonework was badly damaged. Nets and fencing were erected to protect the public from any falling masonry and in 2003 English Heritage funded an emergency photogrammetric survey . This important work informed the application which led to this year's grant.
The Dean of Carlisle, the Very Revd Mark Boyling, said: "We're very grateful to English Heritage for its ongoing financial support. Maintaining the cathedral is a huge and continuing challenge and one that remains very much in our minds and in the minds of our congregation. Approval of this grant is a great relief. It means we can take a set of plans off the drawing board and put the work into practice. The cathedral means a great deal to local residents and to the city of Carlisle and we're all looking forward to seeing the damage put right."
For further press information please contact Anya Matthews, English Heritage Corporate Communications, on 020 7973 3372 or at anya.matthews@english-heritage.org.uk.
| Cathedral | Project description | Offer |
| SOUTHWARK CE | Upgrading doors at high level to enhance fire protection at roof level | £26,000 |
| SOUTHWARK RC | South aisle flat roof repairs | £20,000 |
| WESTMINSTER RC | Metric Survey plans of cathedral and sacristy | £14,000 |
| ARUNDEL RC | The first of three phases of photogrammetric recording of external elevations prior to designing future repair programmes | £8,000 |
| PORTSMOUTH CE | Conservation plan to assist site development | £15,000 |
| ROCHESTER | Repair Nave clerestory masonry | £16,000 |
| ROCHESTER | High level maintenance access and safety precautions | £15,000 |
| ROCHESTER | Rainwater goods and drainage | £19,000 |
| BRISTOL CE | Metric survey plan of cathedral and cloister | £22,000 |
| EXETER | Repair to flat roof of the Retroquire | £21,000 |
| GLOUCESTER | North transept stonework and associated ironwork repairs | £50,000 |
| SALISBURY | Masonry conservation and repair to the Major Repair Area between the two North transepts | £100,000 |
| COVENTRY | Second phase of roof repairs to the nave | £100,000 |
| HEREFORD | Repairs to the roof and turrets of the central tower | £100,000 |
| WORCESTER | Repairs to the Chapter House masonry | £50,000 |
| LINCOLN | Masonry repairs and renewal of lead roofs and rainwater pipes around the North West transept | £100,000 |
| SOUTHWELL | Photogrammetric drawings of central tower elevations to inform future repairs. | £20,000 |
| ELY | Repair to the masonry and the glazing of the East End at low level | £32,000 |
| NORWICH CE | Part replacement of the cloister drainage system | £26,000 |
| NORWICH RC | Fire alarms and fire detection equipment - phase II | £28,000 |
| PETERBOROUGH | Repairs to the gables of the West Front | £21,000 |
| SHEFFIELD CE | Spire repointing - the third and final phase of grant-aided work to the central tower and spire | £50,000 |
| WAKEFIELD | Digital survey - phase III Accurately plotting elevations by laser techniques | £15,000 |
| CARLISLE | Masonry repairs to the upper gable of the wall above the east window and repairs to the statue niche | £58,000 |
| DURHAM | Repair of the refectory roofs and rainwater goods with repairs to the masonry of associated parapets and gables | £65,000 |
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