I was intrigued to hear of the passion that led the six people who make up the
congregation of St Andrew, Kirby Grindalythe in Ryedale, to raise enough
money to restore the 12th-century tower, roof and stained glass of this
Grade II* listed church, eulogised by Sir John Betjeman as one of the
nation’s finest.
We also heard of St Mark’s, a jewel-like Grade II listed chapel at Ten Mile
Bank in Norfolk, little changed since it was built in 1846. The original
pulpit and poppyhead pews remained, but it was beset by subsidence and
distortion as the underlying fenland peat shrank away. The chapel closed in
2002, and its future looked bleak until a group of local people stepped in,
applied for grants from English Heritage and the Heritage Lottery Fund and
carried out large-scale repairs. St Mark’s is now once again open
for worship.
And I was delighted to have the myth dispelled that congregations are all over
the age of 60. At St John the Evangelist, a Gothic Revival church in Penge,
young members of the Prince’s Trust help with maintenance, and Singers Hill
synagogue in Birmingham (see below) maintains its bricks and mortar by
playing an active role in the community and hosting thousands of school
visits every year.
I was struck by the affection and dedication which places of worship inspire
in those connected to them, and came away from the event determined to do
something to raise the profile of congregations like these and all the
others out there. Clearing gutters and hosting coffee mornings to mend the
roof is not most people’s main reason for going to church, yet thousands
take on this additional responsibility, caretaking England’s
greatest architectural legacy — our spiritual history in bricks and stone,
for the sake of past, current and future generations.
As I talked to Simon Thurley, chief executive of
English Heritage, I became increasingly aware that there are
hard-working groups and individuals rescuing all kinds of heritage all over
the country. They all deserve greater recognition. In saving our heritage,
they are saving a part of our identity – that intangible but vivid feeling
that it is good to live here.
Just think for a moment about your local heritage. Was there a Building
Preservation Trust who saved the old water mill? And another group of
enthusiasts who saved the Art Deco cinema? Is the Civic Society working with
the council to improve the historic town centre?
Was it a Friends group who succeeded in getting a Heritage Lottery Fund grant
to restore the Victorian park? Or perhaps there is a young couple busy
restoring that derelict Edwardian villa at the end of the street?
To my mind, these people are heritage angels and their endeavours deserve more
glory. It is for this reason that I am delighted to be announcing today in
the Telegraph a new annual award scheme, The
English Heritage Angel Awards – the Angels — to celebrate the people
behind the best heritage rescues in the country.
Anyone who has worked on buildings or a historic site that is, or is eligible
to be, on English Heritage’s Heritage at Risk register
(www.english-heritage.org.uk) can apply. The register lists historic
buildings, monuments, archaeological remains, parks, gardens and landscapes,
conservation areas, battlefields and even shipwrecks. All are among the
country’s most important treasures – and all, for one reason or another, are
on the point of collapsing, dissolving or disappearing.
- English Heritage Angel Awards: How to enter
The 2010 register reveals that one in 32 Grade I and II* buildings is at risk,
as are one in 14 conservation areas, one in six scheduled monuments and one
in 16 registered parks and gardens. The register is being updated to
include, for the first time, places of worship. That is a lot of heritage to
save and, in the present economic climate, no one is pretending it is easy.
The good news is that 311 entries were removed from the register last year;
the bad is that there are 5,504 still to go.
If you are not involved in a rescue yourself but know someone who is,
encourage them to apply. I know there are hundreds of angels out there and I
want to show the world their extraordinary efforts in helping to save
England’s precious heritage from neglect, decay and eventually, if not for
people like them, total loss.