{"id":43517,"date":"2025-07-18T16:30:57","date_gmt":"2025-07-18T15:30:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/?p=43517"},"modified":"2025-07-18T16:30:57","modified_gmt":"2025-07-18T15:30:57","slug":"scotlands-urgent-church-challenge-helped-by-national-lottery-heritage-fund-grant-to-scotlands-churches-trust-soc-ant-scot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/?p=43517","title":{"rendered":"Scotland\u2019s urgent Church Challenge helped by National Lottery Heritage Fund Grant to Scotland\u2019s Churches Trust & Soc Ant Scot"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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image for illustration: St John’s, Ballachulish by Fiona Newton<\/sub><\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Society of Antiquaries of Scotland (Soc Ant Scot) and Scotland\u2019s Churches Trust have announced a \u00a3229,015 grant from The National Lottery Heritage Fund to help ensure a sustainable future for Scotland\u2019s churches and their contents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

The Soc Ant Scot writes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Finding Futures for Scotland\u2019s Churches project will immediately begin to collate information on the heritage and community value of the nation\u2019s churches to help explore practical solutions to avoid the loss of heritage when churches are closed, share resources and prioritise sites for further action. Scotland\u2019s church buildings and their contents represent a wealth of cultural heritage built-up over generations. There are almost 3,000 such buildings across the country, belonging to a range of different denominations, and encompassing a variety of building types and periods of construction, from the early medieval period to the more recent past.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Around one third of the country\u2019s places of worship are predicted to shut by the end of this decade. With nearly 200 of these heritage buildings already closed since 2020, the problem is an immediate one, and one that constitutes a national challenge for the heritage sector as many of these churches hold tangible and intangible cultural heritage significance. In addition to their religious and ceremonial use, they also possess tangible architectural, historical, archival, genealogical, archaeological and artistic legacies. These can be of local, regional, national, and international importance and may be sold, lost or damaged depending on the fate of the building.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The National Lottery Heritage Fund also brings to the project its own strong record of delivering new futures for Scotland\u2019s historic church buildings, and the heritage within. With support from The National Lottery Heritage Fund, Govan Old church in Glasgow, for example, has been transformed into an internationally significant heritage attraction over the years as the home of the Govan Stones. These Viking-age monuments are said to be one of the best collections of early medieval sculpture anywhere in the British Isles. In the Cairngorms National Park, The National Lottery Heritage Fund is also supporting the community in partnership with Historic Churches Scotland to develop a new role for St Margaret\u2019s Church in Braemar as a cultural hub and performance venue through a grant awarded in 2024. St Margaret\u2019s is considered the finest Scottish work of celebrated ecclesiastical architect Sir John Ninian Comper. However, with several hundred churches already on the market, the challenge to understand their significance and address their loss is national.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As well as collating information, Finding Futures for Scotland\u2019s Churches will fill knowledge gaps using heritage surveys, with opportunities for local communities to get involved. This information will be made publicly accessible, for example, through a dedicated microsite with a regularly updated database and blog. The two-year project will draw together people and organisations as part of an action group to explore practical solutions, share resources and prioritise sites for further action. It will also develop a plan to ensure heritage of local and national importance is not lost when churches are re-used or re-purposed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr Helen Spencer FSAScot, Head of Research at the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, said: \u2018Thanks to National Lottery players, the Society will be able to work with communities across the country to bring together crucial information about the heritage of Scotland\u2019s churches. Working with Scotland\u2019s Churches Trust and the many other groups involved in caring for these places of worship, we hope to make the heritage sector much better prepared when churches are closed or re-purposed, to ensure that important treasures are not lost to the nation forever.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr DJ Johnston-Smith, Director of Scotland\u2019s Churches Trust, said: \u2018For hundreds of years, communities across Scotland deposited a trove of culturally significant heritage in their local churches all across the country. This collective cultural inheritance needs to be documented before it vanishes from public sight, possibly forever. We look forward to working with the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, The National Lottery Heritage Fund and colleagues to continue the roll out of our Rapid Church Recording methodology and our ongoing collaborative work with the local congregations and communities who are currently writing the next chapters in the stories of these precious historic buildings.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Caroline Clark, The National Lottery Heritage Fund Director for Scotland, said: \u2018For centuries, churches have been cultural and physical landmarks at the heart of Scottish community life. A meeting place, a repository of lives and histories and a physical link to the intangible heritage of generations. We recognise the significant challenges now facing those churches. This project will take a strategic lead in ensuring there is accurate recording of the heritage of individual churches. That will provide an invaluable wealth of data to support informed decisions on the future use of our churches as organisations and communities seek to give them new life while respecting their heritage.\u2019 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read more….<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

image for illustration: St John’s, Ballachulish by Fiona Newton The Society of Antiquaries of Scotland (Soc Ant Scot) and Scotland\u2019s Churches Trust have announced a \u00a3229,015 grant from The National Lottery Heritage Fund to help ensure a sustainable future for … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[57,18,23,62,29,83,147],"class_list":["post-43517","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sector-newsblog","tag-church","tag-conservation","tag-expertise","tag-funding","tag-heritage","tag-scotland","tag-sustainability"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43517","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\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=43517"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43517\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43518,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43517\/revisions\/43518"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=43517"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=43517"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=43517"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}