Students join battle to save county’s historic churches

A group of students have been staging a series of performances in some of North Yorkshire’s most historic churches in a battle to save them as Government spending cuts bite.

The performing arts department at Boroughbridge High School has lent its support to The Churches Conservation Tust (CCT), which has to find £1.5m each year to fill its funding shortfall after its Government grant was slashed under austerity measures.

Music and drama students have performed in the battlefield church of St Mary’s at Lead, near Tadcaster, and St Mary’s, Roecliffe, in a bid to boost funds for the trust, which protects 18 historic churches in North Yorkshire.

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Jean Banwell, North Yorkshire community officer for the Churches Conservation Trust, said: “I contacted the performing arts department to see if they might want to use some of the churches for performances because unusually Boroughbridge High School sits among a cluster of our buildings. They were extremely enthusiastic about helping to save them.

“The aim of the performances are not only to raise money towards the care of the churches, but also to raise awareness and involve the community in these buildings so they can find them and appreciate them.”

Mrs Banwell stressed the importance of the conservation of the churches, which are mostly Grade I and Grade II listed buildings.

She said: “The churches are an extremely important part of our heritage. They are what we term “at risk”. They buildings are vested into our care by the Church of England when they fall into redundancy. Most still have very occasional services in them, for example St Mary’s at Roecliffe has six a year and St Mary’s at Tadcaster has one.

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“There is something very special and unique about all the churches and the idea is people can come and visit and appreciate the architecture and a little bit of our history that is captured in these beautiful buildings.”

The students staged their latest concert in St Mary’s Church, Roecliffe, on Saturday. The unusual barrel-vaulted neo-Norman church features a Jacobean pulpit, a 17th century communion table and a vestry door from York Minster.

Mrs Banwell said: “Fundraising is the most important thing for us and money raised from the concert will go towards the upkeep of our churches.”