A LISTED Swindon church has been awarded a grant of more than £14,000 for its first refurbishment in 30 years.
The Bath Road Methodist Church in Old Town applied for the grant as part of the Government’s Listed Places of Worship: Roof Repair Fund, the first fund of its kind.
At the turn of the year, grants co-ordinator Steve Sparkes applied with the hope of fixing two serious leaks at the 135-year-old church, which have caused a permanent state of dampness.
“No question, the rest of the roof is absolutely sound. By getting this grant we have secured a roof which will be fit for the next 30 years,” he said.
“This is most welcome. The limited money we do have can now be spent on other repairs needed in the rest of the building.”
The Grade II listed building, which was officially opened in May 1880, is funded only through donations made by members of the church congregation.
The two leaks, which have begun to stain woodwork and damage the stonework within the church, materialised two years ago and since then a fund has slowly been added to with the aim of repair.
The last refurbishment was in 1980, but this grant will go some way to securing the next 30 years of the church’s life, with community groups as well as worshippers set to benefit.
“We had tried to carefully build up a rainy day fund with various donations and appeals, but it got to the point where it was literally a rainy day and we had to do something about it,” said Steve.
“The money we were raising can now go other things, like upgrading toilets, lighting and heating.”
Specialist builders, trained to work on listed structures, will now be sought out by the church for quotes on the repairs.
Once the work has been carried out, the invoices will be passed on to the fund, which will then release the £14,300 grant.
It is hoped the work will be completed before the end of September.
The fund was launched by the Chancellor in his Autumn Statement in December 2015 with a UK-wide budget of £15m.
In his 2015 Budget speech, the Chancellor announced a further commitment of £40m to the fund. This new money brings the total UK funding package up to £55m.
Grants announced this week account for £30m of the allocated funding. The fund will reopen to new applications later this year and successful applicants will be announced in 2016.
All those who were unsuccessful in the first round of awards will be able to reapply.
The fund is administered by the National Heritage Memorial Fund (NHMF) on behalf of the Department for Culture Media and Sport (DCMS). A full list of awards can be found at www.lpowroof.org.uk.