Three Shropshire churches to share £300,000 payout
Three south Shropshire churches have been awarded a share of nearly £300,000 for urgent repairs to their roofs.
St Catherine's in Tugford and Heath Chapel in Bouldon, both near Craven Arms, have been awarded £100,000 each, while St John the Baptist Church in Kenley, near Much Wenlock, has been given £93,800.
The money, from the Listed Places of Worship Roof Repair Fund, was announced by Chancellor George Osborne yesterday.
In all, 372 Church of England parishes will receive grants from a £30 million funding pot for urgent repairs.
ChurchCare, the buildings division of the Church of England, said the money would make an "immeasurable" difference.
In the Diocese of Hereford, seven churches – four in Herefordshire and the three in Shropshire – will receive funding, in total £585,800.
Tim Bridges, church buildings support officer for the Diocese of Hereford, said: "Grants large and small are welcomed by any historic listed church struggling to maintain a very special building.
"The grants are another recognition of the importance of these buildings, not just to the local landscape but to the national picture too."
The total funding package for the first round of the scheme announced by the Treasury is £30 million, which will go to a total of 502 listed places of worship, with Church of England parishes receiving just over £19 million.
Extra funding announced in last week's Budget will enable a second round of grants to be awarded next year to the value of an additional £25 million.
Around 12,000 of the Church of England's 16,000 parish churches are listed and 806 of these were included on the 2014 Heritage at Risk Register prepared by English Heritage.
This highlighted the impact of leaks from roofs as the principal cause of decay in historic churches. All the churches benefiting today will receive grants between £10,000 and £100,000 towards the urgent repair of roofs, gutters and drains.
The fund, administered by the National Heritage Memorial Fund (NHMF) on behalf of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, was heavily oversubscribed when applications closed on January 31. The decision to increase the scheme to a total of £55 million, to be awarded over two rounds, was a response to this demand.
