Catholic churches share in Christmas funding boost for urgent repairs

St Joseph's RC Church, Burslem

Twenty nine churches and chapels in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are to share in a £390,000 funding pay-out, announced by the National Churches Trust. The funding will pay for urgent repairs and for new community facilities including toilets and disabled access.

Churches receiving grants include St Bride's RC Church, East Kilbride. a pioneering 1960's brutalist church in Scotland and St Joseph's RC Church, Burslem, Staffordshire, an arts and crafts church built by unemployed men in Stoke-on Trent and dubbed 'the church of genuflections' by Potteries author Arnold Bennett.

Six of the churches awarded grants are on Historic England's 'At Risk' Register which identifies heritage sites most at danger. Financial support from the National Churches Trust will help to safeguard their future.

The latest grant announcement concludes a year in which the UK's church repair and support charity has awarded or recommended funding of £2.2 million to help 177 churches, chapels and meeting houses.

Top of the 2015 list of funding requests received by the charity include repairs to roofs, stonework and drainage and the provision of toilets, kitchens and disabled access.

Huw Edwards, Vice-President of the National Churches Trust said: "I'm delighted that this Christmas the future of 29 churches and chapels is being safeguarded by National Churches Trust grants.

"Funding for repairs will help save architectural heritage for future generations including some of the finest examples of medieval, Victorian and 20th century church architecture. National Churches Trust funding for new community facilities will help ensure that more churches and chapels can better serve local people. At the heart of the nation's history and at the centre of local communities, churches and chapels are some of the UK's best loved local buildings. But their future is not guaranteed.

"So this Christmas, when people visit a church for a carol service or even just walk past a church on the way to do the Christmas shopping, I urge them to think about how they can help ensure that churches remain open and in good repair for future generations.

"Everyone can make a contribution to the future of the UK's church and chapel buildings. That can be by helping to clear drains and gutters to help keep churches watertight, volunteering as a guide to show people the magnificent history and architecture of places of worship or by keeping an eye out for vandals or thieves.

"Churches and chapels may be historic buildings, but they can be part of our future, too."

Churches being helped include:

St Bride's Roman Catholic Church, East Kilbride, Scotland G74 1NN

St Bride's Roman Catholic Church has been hailed as an amazing piece of contemporary ecclesiastical architecture and received the RIBA bronze medal for architecture in 1964, for the area of the Glasgow Institute of Architects. The church, including Presbytery and Ancillary Buildings, is a Category 'A' Listed Gillespie, Kidd and Coia Church in East Kilbride, completed 1963-64.

The Church is a Scottish interpretation of the brutalist style of 1960s architecture and is one of the finest buildings to be produced by one of the most influential Scottish practices of the era. St Bride's is the 'Mother Church' in East Kilbride, the first New Town to be designated in Scotland in 1947

The £40,000 National Churches Trust Cornerstone Grant will help to fund a major project of repairs and renewal to return the building nearer to its original condition. The essential fabric repairs and restoration works will provide a watertight envelope with restored features allowing the Church to continue to function properly as a place of worship.

Fr Jim Thomson, Treasurer of the Diocese of Motherwell said: "We are delighted that St. Bride's Roman Catholic Church has been awarded a £40,000 National Churches Trust Cornerstone Grant. Our Church has received many architectural awards and much professional admiration throughout the years and it is therefore very fitting that 50 years on from its dedication it is being restored to its original glory, not just for the Parish community and East Kilbride, but for the wider international design community. The funding, along with the other grants we have received, will allow us to refurbish the roof and restore the brickwork, key elements of the church."

St Joseph's Catholic Church, Burslem, Staffordshire ST6 4BB

St Joseph's church in Burslem, Stoke on Trent is on Historic England Heritage' At Risk' Register and the National Churches Trust's £40,000 Cornerstone Grant will help fund a project to repair the nave roof and its eaves and gutters as well as extensive repointing of the nave clerestory and buttresses. This work will help safeguard the church and its remarkable interior including its fine painted ceiling panels.

In the words of Mrs Joan Walley (MP for Stoke on Trent 1987 - 2015), St Joseph's is a 'building is of huge architectural, cultural and religious value to the town of Burslem and is one we need to preserve for future generations'.

One of the most striking features of the church is the painted ceiling panels to the Nave which were undertaken by Gordon Forsyth, the then head of the Burslem School of Art and principal artist at Minton. While Gordon Forsyth was designing stained glass windows for St. Joseph's, his daughter Moira was starting to produce artwork for the church. Moira Forsyth produced the huge and stunning ceiling painting 'Christ in Glory' in individual panels in her London studio, circa 1935-37.

"It is most certainly a stunning work," says writer Carmel Dennison. "Obviously it has tremendous merit in its spiritual location, but as a stand-alone work of art it commands an important place in the social heritage of the Potteries."

"The church itself was commissioned by the parish priest Reverend William Browne and designed by the distinguished 20th century architect JS Brocklesby," Carmel says. "The style is Italian and the colours of the bricks, which were locally made at Fenton, were chosen to reflect a herringbone pattern. The astonishing thing about it is that it was paid for by subscription and congregation collection, and it was constructed by the hands of the unemployed men of Burslem, brought together during a time of distress and mass unemployment in the 1920s.

"Father Browne recruited these men from around the town and paid them with a daily bowl of soup and a chunk of bread. It is a credit to Burslem's community that the church was built in such a short period of time."

Fr Christopher Miller, Parish Priest said: "We are delighted that St Joseph's Catholic Church has been awarded a £40,000 National Churches Trust Cornerstone Grant. An ambitious design of the 1920's much of the interior decoration was carried out by local volunteers under the supervision of Gordon Forsyth, director of the local School of Art. The church is an important local landmark in an area of deprivation and as suffered neglect over recent years. This funding will allow us to complete the urgent roof repairs and secure the exterior fabric of the building. Once this phase of work has been completed we would like to turn our attention to developing our facilities available and improving access to church."

The National Churches Trust is an independent charity which receives no financial support from Government or church authorities. National Churches Trust Cornerstone Grants are made possible through the generous support of the Pilgrim Trust, as well as donors and supporters, other trusts and foundations and the many places of worship and individuals who support our programmes. Read more: www.nationalchurchestrust.org/