28 places of worship across the region are celebrating this month after receiving a share of over £110,000 to help with their vital repairs and maintenance.
The funding comes from the Yorkshire Historic Churches Trust, a charity that helps churches in Yorkshire to preserve and repair their buildings through offering grants for repairs and maintenance.
The funding was awarded to a range of church and chapels from all corners of the region, from Beverley to Halifax and Helmsley to Doncaster, and included Methodist chapels, an Evangelical Church, a United Reformed Church, Anglican and Catholic Churches, a Baptist and an Independent church.
One church receiving funding is St Richard’s in Seacroft. The church was built in 1956 after a group of ten residents meeting in a front room to worship started going house to house to collect donations to build a church for the community.
Fast forward nearly 70 years and splits are appearing in the concrete, the window frames are rusting and leaks are appearing in the roof. The repairs needed to ensure the building remains watertight will cost £20,000 and the YHCT was delighted to award £7000 towards the total.
St Richard’s plays a vital role in the local community, home to a foodbank that feeds over 1000 people per month, distributing toys at Christmas to over 1000 children and regularly providing hot meals to 45 local residents.
Rev’d Anne Russell, team rector at St Richard’s said: “We are delighted to be receiving this funding from the YHCT, which will help secure the future of this greatly needed place of worship in the heart of Seacroft. Since being built in the 1950s, the church remains a vital place for the community to meet and worship and this grant will help us reignite the hope that those first ten residents had when they started their fundraising campaign”.
Tom Ramsden, chairman of the YHCT said: “Yorkshire is home to many of the most important churches in the United Kingdom: They dominate the landscape, they are vital to the life of many communities, and they are full of the treasures of our heritage. Trustees were delighted to award funding to such a wide range of churches from all across the region and are delighted to help these much loved places of worship secure their future for generations to come.”
A list of the grants awarded can be found here: https://www.yhct.org.uk/latest-grant-awards/
