Some of the Church of England’s finest historic properties are coming under the hammer as bishops’ grace-and-favour residences across the country are sold off to cut costs.
The Independent on Sunday has identified at least seven prime Church of England buildings which have been, or are to be, sold. While the Anglican church needs funds, some of the sales have prompted suggestions that it is indulging in asset stripping.
See houses, as the properties are known, have been put on the market in Bristol, London, Portsmouth, Ripon, Rochester and Carlisle, as well as Hartlebury Castle, Worcester, which is Grade I-listed.
Auckland Castle, the Bishop of Durham’s residence since 1832, owned by the church since the 12th century, is also under review. All have been deemed “unsuitable” as bishops’ residences since 1999.
The proposed sales of Rose Castle, the Grade I-listed home of 66 bishops of Carlisle since the 13th century, and Bishopscourt, a Grade II-listed building acquired by the Bishop of Rochester in the 17th century, have added to the controversy.
Rose Castle has an 1840s chapel, a Norman pele tower, a drawing room with 18th-century Chinese wallpaper, a 14th-century bishop’s fishpond with stone steps and an ancient garden. It is no longer used by the Bishop of Carlisle, who has moved to Keswick. The Church Commissioners’ assets committee will decide whether to sell the castle at a meeting on 22 September.
Dr Richard Pratt, the Archdeacon of West Cumberland and spokesman for the diocese of Carlisle, said: “Because Rose Castle is no longer a bishop’s house it is removed from the list. It is still owned by the commission but to them it is seen as an asset. It is a working asset that could produce an income. We need to have that income to support the work of the church. There is also a moral issue: it is a big house that at the moment is empty but it is having to be heated and maintained. That is just ridiculous. That isn’t moral in terms of stewardship of resources that need to be used. One presumes the alternatives are to sell or to let.”
The building costs £150,000 a year to run and has a maintenance backlog of £1.7m. English Heritage will be consulted before a decision is made.
A spokesman for the Church Commissioners said: “We have a rolling review of see houses when their incumbents reach the age of 62. Since the process was introduced in 2005, we have reviewed 30 houses and found five to be unsuitable in Bradford, Lincoln, Ripon, Rochester and Hartlebury Castle in Worcester, as well as Rose Castle in Carlisle.”
The church spent a year consulting with church groups, the dioceses and English Heritage. Jane Hasell-McCosh from Friends of Rose Castle, said her campaign group still hopes to reach an eleventh-hour agreement with the bishop, the Rt Rev James Newcome. “A bishop’s palace has been part of our Christian heritage for the past 800 years,” she said. “It seems entirely breathtaking it can be turned into an asset like a supermarket or a shopping mall. This is no longer a church thing, this is about the people of Cumbria and our heritage. They cannot asset-strip.”
Last year, commissioners spent £5.9m maintaining bishops’ properties, £15.6m on their office and working costs, and £5.1m on their stipends. The church made a 15.6 per cent return on investments during 2009, and assets grew to £4.8bn.
The diocese of Bristol said a 17-bedroom house in the Clifton Hill area, which was home to the Rt Rev Michael Hall, was sold off because of the cost of maintenance.
A spokesman for the diocese of Ripon and Leeds said its bishop moved out of his residence in 2008 to be in Leeds city centre. “Although there was a review of all [CofE] dioceses, the initiative for this particular move did not come from the Church Commissioners, it came from the diocese. It was not a financial issue.”