Eight Devon churches awarded £2.3m for historic building repairs
Eight Church of England churches across Devon are set to benefit from a share of £2.3 million in funding to help safeguard historic buildings and ensure they can continue serving their communities.
The grants have been awarded through Historic England’s Places of Worship Renewal Fund, which supports essential repairs and conservation work at places of worship. The fund was launched in May following the closure of the long-running Listed Places of Worship Grant Scheme.
More than £13 million has been awarded to Church of England churches through the new fund, with eight churches in the Diocese of Exeter among those receiving support.
The successful Devon churches are St Mary’s, Brixham; Holy Trinity, Milton Damerel; St John’s, Paignton; St Matthias, Plymouth; St Stephen’s, Putford; St Swithun’s, Pyworthy; St Mary’s, Tamerton Foliot; and All Saints, Torre.
Louise Brown, Church Buildings Support Officer for the Diocese of Exeter, said “This is fantastic news for these eight churches and their communities. This money is a real lifeline, enabling essential repairs to take place. At a parish level, volunteers work tirelessly to look after their church buildings, and the people in these parishes put significant effort into their grant applications. Their success is a recognition that these buildings are at the very heart of our communities.”
St John’s Church in Paignton will receive £175,186 towards essential repairs. The grant adds to the church’s success in securing separate support from the National Lottery Heritage Fund.
Rev’d Laura McAdam, the Team Vicar, said “This generous grant allows us to secure the future of our Grade I listed building, a site that has held 900 years of worship. The community of Paignton fully deserves this investment in its heritage and finally fixing persistent leaks and water ingress allows us to take the first step in safeguarding the building, as part of a wider vision of community use particularly by SEND families and groups who support our most vulnerable parishioners.”
St John’s is among the historic churches serving communities on the southern edge of Dartmoor and across the South Devon coast. Its long history of worship makes the work important not only for the congregation but also for the wider town and its heritage.
Further west, St Matthias Church in Plymouth is due to receive £692,077 to fund essential repairs to the roof and stonework of its Victorian building. The church has a particular focus on serving students and young adults and recently celebrated its 10th birthday as a Church of England Resource Church. Its grant will help protect the building while supporting its continuing role in the city’s community life.
Two churches in the Bradworthy Mission Community have secured grants totalling £712,735. St Stephen’s, Putford, and Holy Trinity, Milton Damerel, will use the funding to help pay for roof repairs and the restoration of interior plasterwork. The churches are among the rural places of worship serving communities north of Dartmoor, where historic church buildings remain important gathering places as well as landmarks in the surrounding countryside.
Rev’d Mark James, Team Rector of Bradworthy Mission Community, said: “The Church is its people, and these buildings shelter our shared life, giving us somewhere to gather before God with all that we are and all that we carry. Many who enter may never join a Sunday congregation, yet their connection to this place can be deeply meaningful, rooted in family memories or in the simple reassurance of knowing there is somewhere they can come.
“As custodians, ours is to care for what has been entrusted to us while asking where God is guiding and calling us next, ensuring that these places are structurally sound and ready to receive those who will need them in an ever more volatile world. We cannot know the stories they will bring, but we can prepare a place for them, just as others prepared a place for us.”
The remaining successful churches are St Mary’s in Brixham, St Swithun’s in Pyworthy, St Mary’s in Tamerton Foliot and All Saints in Torre. Together with the other recipients, they will be able to address repairs that can be difficult for congregations and volunteers to fund through local fundraising alone.
While welcoming the awards, the Diocese of Exeter has stressed that many other churches across Devon also need help with repairs and conservation. Historic churches can face substantial costs to maintain roofs, stonework, plaster, drainage and other elements of ageing buildings. Water ingress is a particular threat, as leaks can lead to further deterioration if left unresolved.
Louise Brown said she and her colleagues would continue helping parishes identify and apply for available funding.
“While this is a positive story for these eight churches, we acknowledge that there are many more churches in need of funding for repairs and that every one of Devon’s churches has been impacted by the loss of the VAT reclaim grant scheme.
“We continue to work with parishes to support them in carrying out repairs and accessing grant funding, and to work with colleagues across the country to campaign for better access to funding for our historic churches,” she said.