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Church Spire and Roof Update…the story so far!
White Divider

People in the village are aware of the work carried out to date on the emergency repairs and stabilisation works which were completed to enable St Cuthbert’s to remain open. Whilst this work was always a temporary solution it has given the Church Council the time to develop fully the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) application and subsequent approvals from all of the relevant bodies eg, English Heritage, Central Church. The HLF approval process is in two parts, The Development Phase, which involves the appointment of all appropriate professionals and the drawing up and tendering of detailed plans and eventually, once all this has been accepted, the Delivery Phase.  To date £52,000 has been spent on repairs and planning with the HLF providing £13,500 towards this.  The balance has been found through the magnificent efforts by the village.

The great news now is that the HLF have finally adopted the plans submitted and given permission to the PCC to complete the repairs (the Delivery Phase) and this means that the work can start early June.

The HLF has now confirmed a grant of £232,000 which was the maximum available and leaves us to find the sum of £70,000.

The PCC has had to take the difficult decision to commit all of its remaining financial reserves to the scheme.  However, this will still leave a shortfall to find and therefore the fundraising efforts will continue. 

Some may question this decision and also why the spire cannot be left as it is following the ‘making safe’ work that was carried out.

The decision has been taken for the following reasons: 

  • The initial repairs (that were made possible by the generosity of the village) have made the building safe but are not a permanent solution.  If the work is not done the spire will eventually have to be taken down, which will still cost a lot of money and which would not attract any grant funding.  The roof would also deteriorate further exposing the church to more water damage.
  • the grant is available now and is not guaranteed in the future, we could not do the repairs without the grant.
  • The purpose of Reserves is to meet challenges such as this and whilst we do have some remaining this scheme will exhaust these.  The alternative however would ultimately be the closure of an unsafe building, a position the PCC and the village is not willing to contemplate.

The PCC recognises totally that Church is not just about a building but we cannot escape the fact that having a building of such architectural and historical significance brings with it a great responsibility to do our best to preserve both the building and village heritage.  Whether you have a great faith or non the Church stands at the centre of our village and aims to welcome all through its doors whether in celebration, reflection or remembrance, in search of peace or comfort at times of distress or in learning about our village and its history.

A condition of the HLF grant is to establish a Heritage resource within the Church and this will provide a focal point for village history and one of the outcomes of the scheme will be the more frequent opening of the Church outside normal Sunday services. 

We could not do this without the support of the Heritage Lottery Fund and we are also seeking grants from other sources where they can be identified.

We could not however do it without the help of you, the local community and we are extremely grateful for the support that you have given to get us to this stage and, at the most critical time, to help fund the temporary repairs.

If you would like to know more about how you can help then please:

  • watch this space for upcoming Fundraising events or

  • visit St Cuthberts Facebook page which will be updated regularly or

  • visit www.halsallstcuthberthub.co.uk

If anyone would like to set up a regular contribution to St Cuthberts or make one off donations to the appeal please contact Colin Throp, Church Treasurer on 01704 841281 or Revd Paul Robinson at The Rectory, Church Lane, Lydiate L31 4HL.

 

Other news stories
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St Cuthberts PCC
Halsall
West Lancashire
L31 4JF