Fifteen churches from across Yorkshire were awarded over £60,000 of funding at the recent grants committee, which saw funding allocated for vital repairs to the roofs, windows and ancient stonework of some of the region’s most vulnerable places of worship.
Peter Johnston, Trustee and Chair of the Grants Committee, said the committee were delighted to have been able to approve the grants following a virtual meeting of the trustees. “We get great pleasure from being able to support these churches,” he said. The aim of trust is to help preserve, repair and maintain churches within Yorkshire and Mr Johnston said this numbered around 2,500 with a wide variety of buildings.
He said many of these churches were increasingly becoming an important hub for the communities around them supporting pop-up Post Offices and holding community events.
He said: “Congregations are generally not on the rise and in villages we find the churches are used and cared for by people who are not necessarily using them for worship but see it as a focal point of the community.“
The following awards were made by the committee:
- St Paul’s, Rotherham £5000
- St Oswald’s , Oswaldkirk £5500
- Brompton on Swale Methodist Church £3000
- St Mary the Virgin, Elland £7000
- All Saints, Little Horton £6000
- St Giles, Pontefract £6000
- St Martin, Wormersley £2500
- The Chapel on the Bridge, Rotherham £4800
- All Saints, Burythorpe £4000
- St Micheal’s, Middleton Tyas £3000
- Holy Cross, Gilling East £1000
- St Peter’s, Hoyland £1000
- St Nicholas, Stillington £2000
- St Oswald’s, Thornton in Lonsdale £5500
- All Saints, Ripley £6000