Three Torbay churches set to benefit from £2.3 million fund
The funding comes from a £2.3 million grant awarded by Historic England through its Places of Worship Renewal Fund, supporting eight churches across Devon, including three in Torbay.
Three churches in Torbay are set to benefit from funding to help carry out essential repairs and preserve the historic buildings.
The funding comes from a £2.3 million grant awarded by Historic England through its Places of Worship Renewal Fund, which will support eight churches across Devon, including three in Torbay.
The Torbay churches set to receive funding are St Mary’s Church in Brixham, St John’s the Baptist Church in Paignton and All Saints’ Church in Torre.
The other churches in Devon due to receive funding are Holy Trinity in Milton Damerel, St Matthias in Plymouth, St Stephen’s in Putford, St Swithun’s in Pyworthy and St Mary’s in Tamerton Foliot.
The fund was launched by Historic England in May following the closure of the long-running Listed Places of Worship Grant Scheme.
It has since awarded more than £13 million to Church of England churches.
Louise Brown, Church Buildings Support Officer for the Diocese of Exeter, welcomed the funding.
She 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 from the grant, which will be used to pay for essential repairs.
This grant forms part of a wider success story for St John’s, which has also secured funding 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.”
Louise Brown also added that her team is committed to supporting all of Devon’s Anglican churches in applying for available grants.
She said: "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 have 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.”