St Andrew's Church, Winston, receives £58,000 grant - but more cash is needed for roof repairs (From The Advertiser Series)

St Andrew's Church, Winston, receives £58,000 grant - but more cash is needed for roof repairs

3:17pm Tuesday 29th January 2013 in News By Stuart Laundy, Reporter (Barnard Castle & Teesdale)

A HISTORIC Teesdale church has received a £58,000 heritage grant to tackle a leaky roof – but more cash must be raised to cover the cost of repairs.

Officials at St Andrew's Church, Winston, near Barnard Castle, had hoped to receive £160,000 from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) via English Heritage which, together with £30,000 being raised locally, would have covered the entire cost of repairs.

The Reverend Martin Jacques, vicar of St Andrew's, said: “This is a huge boost – but we are not out of the woods yet.

“It means we can now go to other grant making bodies to get a large part of the rest.”

The chancel roof is in most urgent need of repairs, but problems with leaks have reached the stage where the entire church roof needs replacing.

Church warden Joyce Wilson said £13,000 of the HLF grant would cover the cost of fees for further exploratory work on the chancel roof.

The remaining £45,000 represents 45 per cent of the cost of repairing the chancel roof.

Rev Jacques conceded: “It is not as much as we were wanting, but it is going to make us work harder for the rest.

“We will go to other grant making bodies and a large fundraising drive is under way locally.”

Parts of St Andrew's date back to the 13th century. Alterations were carried out in 1848 and the last major work was the construction of the vestry in 1893.

The heritage grant for St Andrew's was one of six totalling £460,000 announced this week to help fund structural repairs at places of worship.

Ivor Crowther, head of HLF North-East, said: “Historic places of worship form prominent and much loved landmarks in our villages, towns and cities.

“They are unique buildings that bring local communities together for a variety of reasons from worship through to culture and leisure.”

Carol Pyrah, English Heritage planning and conservation director for the North-East, added: “Listed places of worship make up an elemental part of the historic fabric of England. It is crucial they are cared for and repaired.”