Churches boosted by new grants

The Collegiate Church of St Mary in Warwick is set for major repair works thanks to a new grant. (s)

A GRANT of over £300,000 will help restore the historic Collegiate Church of St Mary to former glories.

The church in Warwick is one of dozens across the Midlands to benefit from a share of £2 million from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF).

The listed church, originally founded in 1123 by Roger de Newburgh, the Earl of Warwick, lost much of its medieval fabric in the Great Fire of Warwick in 1694.

But the Beauchamp Chapel, built between 1443 and 1464, was built to house the tomb of Richard Beauchamp, the Earl of Warwick and one of the richest and most powerful people in the country, and also contains the tomb of Elizabeth I’s favourite Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, his brother Ambrose Dudley, Earl of Warwick, and Robert’s four-year old son the ‘Noble Impe’.

The grant of £324,000 will enable the church to undergo vital repairs including the dismantling and reassembly of the flying buttresses and pinnacles of the chapel, adding support, anchoring and repairs to stonework and damaged stone mullions.

Among other churches to benefit is St Nicholas in Warwick, a listed Georgian church built in 1779, which will get £109,000 for repairs to stonework and windows of the nave plus replacement of the stone pinnacles.

Reyahn King, head of HLF West Midlands, said: “With these new grants we aim to ensure even more are historic places of worship are secured for future generations to enjoy.”

The money comes from the Repair Grants for Places of Worship scheme, which is currently funded by HLF and administered by English Heritage.

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