![\"church](\"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/ChurchSpire.png\")
The National Churches Trust (NCT), with Bill Bryson (NCT Vice President), has revealed a record number of funding applications for maintenance this year and the hidden toll that winter can take on church buildings.<\/h3>\nThe National Churches Trust (NCT), with Bill Bryson (NCT Vice President), has revealed a record number of funding applications for maintenance this year and the hidden toll that winter can take on church buildings.<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
The National Churches Trust writes: (12 November 2019)<\/p>\n
Bill Bryson today (12 Nov 2019) urged the country to protect its church heritage, as restoration experts at The National Churches Trust warned of the impact of extreme winter weather conditions.\u00a0 He said caring for historic churches is a matter of \u2018national responsibility\u2019 and that they are \u2018Britain\u2019s wonders of the world\u2019 and should be protected.<\/p>\n
Bill Bryson is a Vice-President of the National Churches Trust and will join Michael Palin and Bettany Hughes in its new \u2018Save our Churches\u2019 charity auction this month raising funds to help pay for urgent repairs to historic churches. The National Churches Trust \u2018Save our Churches\u2019 online auction is now open until midday on 22 November…..<\/p>\n
Rain, snow and wind<\/strong><\/p>\n Winter weather including rain, snow and wind can severely damage church buildings. St Leonard\u2019s, Shoreditch, known as \u2018the actors church\u2019 thanks to its close connections with Shakespeare and Elizabethan theatre, and All Saints, Middleton Cheney, a Northamptonshire church and home to a stunning William Morris interior and Pre-Raphaelite stained glass, both Grade I Listed buildings, have both benefitted from recent grants from the Trust to deal\u00a0 with rainwater damage. They are amongst 900 other churches currently on the Historic England \u2018Heritage at Risk\u2019 register.<\/p>\n Bill Bryson said:<\/p>\n \u201cNothing embodies a quintessential Christmas like a historic church in the snow. But winter is when these ancient and often fragile buildings are most at risk of serious damage from snow, ice, wind and rain. Keeping churches open in winter and protecting the fabric of these irreplaceable buildings is a huge challenge and we should regard it as a matter of national responsibility.<\/p>\n \u201cHistoric churches are Britain\u2019s wonders of the world, yet they are more at risk from winter weather than people realise. I urge the British public to help protect historic churches as we enter the winter months.<\/p>\n \u201cDon\u2019t let this be the last Christmas we can visit some of our beautiful church buildings, many of which have been open for over a thousand Christmases – the winter would be bleak indeed without them!\u201d……<\/p>\n …..New figures released by the National Churches Trust, a charity committed to preserving and maintaining church heritage, confirm a dramatic rise in applications for essential maintenance and repair work. Last year, they received a record 593 applications for grants with its funding helping to remove 23 churches from the Historic England \u2018Heritage at Risk\u2019 register.\u00a0 Since 2007, the Trust has helped over 2,000 UK churches and chapels with heritage grants.<\/p>\n This year has seen a big increase in demand for its maintenance grants; up by 37% so far.\u00a0 It has also been fighting to prevent escalation of damage by helping churches tackle essential maintenance tasks, such as keeping gutters clear, masonry repairs and lime mortar repointing before these turn into bigger problems.<\/p>\n Richard Carr-Archer, Surveyor Emeritus of York Minster and Trustee of the National Churches Trust, said:<\/p>\n \u2019The stonework of historic churches such as wall, towers and spires are often damp in the winter months.\u00a0 If temperatures drop, the stone will then freeze. When a thaw sets in, the stone expands and can break up, causing pieces to fall off. Freezing temperatures can fracture pipes in a church,releasing many gallons of water, damaging masonry and plaster and interior fittings and forcing churches to close.”<\/p>\n “Even without snow and ice, the impact of climate change is seeing wetter and windier winter weather. Higher levels of rainfall in the UK, such as the 20% increase seen in Scotland since the 1960s, with more cycles of wetting and drying, cause damage to timber and stonework and stronger winds and more frequent storms threaten roofs, towers and spires.”<\/p>\n Read more….<\/a><\/p>\n See more on the auction<\/a> and the sum raised so far and for more background see the\u00a0Evening Standard<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The National Churches Trust (NCT), with Bill Bryson (NCT Vice President), has revealed a record number of funding applications for maintenance this year and the hidden toll that winter can take on church buildings.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24649","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sector-newsblog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24649","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=24649"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24649\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24650,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24649\/revisions\/24650"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24649"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=24649"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=24649"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}