| CATHEDRALS are to receive up to £6 million for repairs, in a three-year package announced by English Heritage and the Wolfson Foundation. Cuts in government funding in 2004 forced English Heritage to reduce its assistance; so the news was warmly welcomed at the launch at Southwell Minster in Nottinghamshire, yesterday.
Grants for 2007 total £1.6 million, and will go to 24 cathedrals, of which the largest, of £250,000 each, are for Southwell for urgent repairs to its Norman tower, and Salisbury for masonry repairs and conservation to three windows. Individual grant thresholds have been doubled, which will enable cathedrals to undertake larger repair projects.
Most beneficiaries are Anglican, but the Roman Catholic cathedrals of Arundel, Leeds — where £34,000 will contribute to the restoration of the Pugin reredos — and Norwich also benefit. Grants range upwards from £9000, which will enable Chester to re-slate and re-lead part of its roof. They include £152,000 to Lincoln and £145,000 to Rochester.
Paul Ramsbottom, the executive secretary of the Wolfson Foundation, said: “We are delighted to be funding cathedrals in partnership with English Heritage. These are buildings that lift the spirits; monuments that speak to each succeeding generation.”
The English Heritage Cathedral Grants Scheme has been running since 1991, when a survey showed a huge backlog of significant repairs that cathedrals could not fund alone. Since then, the scheme has contributed a total of £43.4 million.
The Acting Dean of Southwell, Canon Nigel Coates, expressed his delight on Thursday. Cathedral officials had described the crumbling top of the Minster tower as “an unwanted roof garden” because its cracked covering allowed weeds from bird droppings to push the stonework further apart. The award would enable them to “preserve this jewel in the crown of cathedrals for future generations,” he said.
Speaking on behalf of the Association of English Cathedrals, the Dean of Southwark, the Very Revd Colin Slee, welcomed the news, but noted: “English Heritage has also made it abundantly clear that these grants represent a small proportion of the cost of work to cathedrals annually. . . We hope that the Government’s forthcoming spending decisions will recognise both the historical and the wider social and community value of our cathedrals. We need continued access to grant aid.” |
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