Churches secure vital funding for repairs
MHBG-21-02-13 St Peter's Church Kineton St Peter's Church in Kineton has been awarded a �122,000 grant to repair it stone work. Pictured - Rev Barry Jackson, Nick Gunn, Chris Cartwright, David Beaumont, Alex Gunn and Assistant Vicar Alan Cartwright - all from St Peter's Church Kineton
Four of Banburyshire’s most ancient and iconic churches will be able to carry out vital restoration work after receiving more than £250,000 in grants from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF).
The churches are to receive the cash from the Repair Grants for Places of Worship scheme, funded by HLF and administered by English Heritage.
The Church of St Peter in Kineton will receive £123,000, St Lawrence in Oxhill will get £68,000, St Laurence in Shotteswell will receive £51,000 and the Church of All Saints in Burton Dassett is to get £21,000.
The grants will be added to sums raised by individual church communities to carry out essential repairs to stonework, stained glass windows, doors, roofs, towers and period architectural features.
Nick Gunn, church warden at the 12th Century Church of St Peter in Kineton, said the church community was delighted to receive the funds but would have to work hard to raise the extra £100,000 still needed for maintenance of the stonework, the tower and the fabric of the church.
“It’s a real bonus that we’ve managed to get this, it’s fantastic,” he said. “We’re coming up to the 7ooth anniversary of the reconsecration of the church in 1315 so we’re hoping to get the church to a standard so it can last for another few hundred years.
“There is a lot of work to be done to get the match funding together but we’ve got a year before the main part of the work is due to begin so hopefully that will allow us to raise the necessary funds.” Alan Reilly, chairman of the Fabric Committee at St Laurence Church in Shotteswell said: “It means that our generation can leave the church in a better state than we found it.
“The church is more than 1,000 years old and it’s something that every generation has an obligation to maintain. Without this grant the church would fall into disrepair.”
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Wednesday 22 May 2013
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