English Heritage Inspires Middlesbrough To Help Historic Places Of Worship
Inspired!, an English Heritage campaign launched today (Wednesday May 10, 2006) reveals the full extent of the threat facing our historic places of worship and sets out proposals to help solve the problem.
It estimates that the cost of repairing all of England’s listed places of worship is £925 million over the next five years. This exceeds the amount raised by congregations and the grants available from English Heritage, the Heritage Lottery Fund and other sources by approximately £118 million a year. Grants available from English Heritage, the Heritage Lottery Fund and other sources currently total only £40m and we cannot expect Government to meet the remaining shortfall.
Today’s regional launch of Inspired! was held at St Columba’s Church in Middlesbrough, where parishioners were celebrating news of a much-needed repair grant totalling £163,000. The church is one of four Grade II listed churches in the region to receive grants totalling £383,308 from the English Heritage and Heritage Lottery Fund Repair Grants scheme. The Repair Grants for Places of Worship scheme was launched by the two organisations in 2002. So far it has awarded £89.8 million to more than 1,000 buildings struggling to cope with the ravages of time.
The grant money offered to St Columba’s will go towards the full repair of the roof and tower – and has spurred a local group on to put forward proposals to transform the area outside the church into a modern, welcoming public space. At first glance St Columba’s Church is an odd-looking building, set between a petrol station and a supermarket. But back in 1902 when nationally acclaimed architect Temple Moore designed it, the church was sited at the corner of two rows of houses. In addition to the difficult space he had to work with, Moore apparently designed the church to look like a dove when viewed from above – the symbol of St Columba. The church is shared with the Greek Orthodox community and a drop-in centre runs twice a week.
Carol Pyrah, English Heritage Planning and Development Director for the North East, said: “Today, despite much of the surrounding housing having been cleared, St Columba’s still fulfils a vital community role in what is a vulnerable area. Like many other historic churches across the country, it is in need of repairs on a scale far beyond the means of the congregation that worships there. We are delighted that we are able to offer a grant from the English Heritage and Heritage Lottery Fund scheme to go some way towards the repair costs and encourage other listed places of worship to apply to the grant scheme too.
“What this campaign aims to do is to raise awareness of a crisis that is slowly creeping up on us and also to offer some practical ways in which all of us, from Government to parishioners or interested member of the local community, can help.
“£118 million is a staggering annual shortfall which we cannot realistically expect the Government to pay for. Instead Inspired! provides a five-point plan, the most ambitious and strategic attempt yet to tackle this problem head-on. We are asking Government for a total of £26.52m (£8.84m a year for three years) to shrink the problem by:
- re-writing out-dated list descriptions for all 4,200 grade I places of worship as part of the current reform of heritage protection which will make it simpler to adapt the buildings to the needs of their congregations and communities in the 21st century;
- helping congregations to help themselves by appointing Historic Places of Worship Support Officers to provide help and expertise;
- creating a maintenance grants scheme to shrink repair bills in the longer term;
- continuing the English Heritage/Heritage Lottery Fund Repair Grants Scheme for Places of Worship and augment it with a new “Small Grants” scheme; and
- making sure the safety nets are in place for redundant places of worship, including campaigning for adequate Government money for the Churches Conservation Trust.”
English Heritage is calling on the denominations and faiths to see these historic buildings as real assets to their core mission and to take a greater strategic and supportive role in helping heroic but under-resourced individual congregations.
Members of the public might like to get involved by offering time or expertise, creating or joining a Friends group, donating to one of the national charities that care for places of worship or supporting one of the 31 local County Historic Churches Trusts which aim to develop interest in places of worship.
Email this to a friend