Lottery’s £300k for church repairs

TWO local churches will share in a £7 million fund to help with repairs.

Both St Mary’s Church, Greenfield, and Holy Trinity in Shaw, are Victorian Grade II-listed stone buildings, and are part way through major restoration programmes.

Now English Heritage and the Heritage Lottery Fund have awarded St Mary’s £190,000 for replacement of the nave roof and leadwork, and the rebuilding of unstable masonry on the west gable.

Holy Trinity, which was built in 1870, also gets £115,000 for the third and final stage of works, involving the choir vestry, chancel and sacristy.

The Church Road, Shaw, building has already had restoration to the nave roof, including a rose window and stone cross, and the north and south aisle roofs.

Church members need to raise £26,000 for their share of the costs.

St Mary’s, built in 1874 in Chew Valley Road, has already had major work carried out on its crumbling spire, but it will cost £750,000 to restore the whole church. Fundraising has already raised more then £50,000.

Both churches are sharing in the £7 million fund which will restore 56 places of worship, 13 of them in the North-West.

Sara Hilton, head of the Heritage Lottery Fund in the North-West, said: “These special buildings are right at the centre of community life and they urgently need investment.

“This money will also help to create 175 jobs across the UK.”