UK Midland Churches Receive £2million Grant for Repairs

Run-down churches in the West Midlands of England are to receive more than £2million worth of funding to aid repair work on their crumbling features.

The money will be donated by the English Heritage and the Heritage Lottery Fund, and will be given to churches such as St Peter and St Paul’s in Aston, Birmingham, and St John the Baptist Church in Bromsgrove.

They are just two of twenty-eight Grade I and II-listed religious structures that will profit from the grants, which in total will be £2.027 million.

St Peter and St Paul’s church has been given £56,000, as well as a £242,000 grant going to St John the Baptist Church. These generous donations should allow repair works to begin on the building this summer.

St John the Baptist church initially launched a 2002 appeal to raise money for its knave roof, spire and pinnacle and eventually raised £312,000.

The appeal co-ordinator Jo Slade said that they were now closing their fund-raising appeal and that the money which was raised would be used to fund the main repairs to the 12th Century church.