Video: Lifeline for Yorkshire’s crumbling churches

But hard-pressed congregations were offered a lifeline yesterday with the announcement that £2.3m has been set aside by heritage organisations to finance urgent repairs at 16 listed church buildings across Yorkshire and the Humber region. They include St Michael and All Angels, Haworth, known for its connections to the Bronte family.

The majority of grants are being given to churches in West Yorkshire, with St Wilfrid’s, in Halton, Leeds, which was designed by the last of the great Arts and Crafts architects just before the Second World War, getting the biggest sum of £498,000.

In North and East Yorkshire, only one church in each receives a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund and English Heritage.

English Heritage planning director Trevor Mitchell said: “We want our historic places of worship to have a secure future. Not only are they places of prayer and hubs of the community, but they are also amongst this region’s greatest architectural treasures.

“Being able to make timely repairs is vital if much bigger bills are to be avoided further down the road. Leaking roofs for example can cause damp interiors which creates a host of new and even more dire problems.”

St Wilfrid’s, built between 1937 and 1939 by architect Arthur Randall Wells, was facing its own battle with the elements after being left with a badly leaking roof and an uncertain future.

The churchwarden at St Wilfrid’s, Audrey Sugden, said: “The roof is leaking so badly that dampness has caused the paint to peel inside the church, just adding to the problems. We are very proud of our building, which is very spacious and light and which was designed by a gifted architect. But over the past 25 years its condition has deteriorated.

“Now we will be able to tackle the root problem and get the roof repaired. When we told we were being offered such a big grant it was a tremendous feeling and a real boost to our fundraising efforts. Without this vital support we wouldn’t be able to get the project off the ground.”

Mr Mitchell added: “St. Wilfrid’s was one of the last buildings to be designed by Randall Wells, who did most of his major works about 1900. He was also a bit of a concrete expert in its early days.

“It is recognisably a Gothic church, but if you look closely there are no buttresses – which you would expect of a Victorian church – because it is built of concrete and doesn’t need them. When you get up close, the window details are all stripped back and very rectilinear and inside it’s all very clean lines, so you recognise it is from the 1930s.”

The church also has a carving of St Wilfrid, dated 1939, by the great Arts and Crafts sculptor Eric Gill, whose works adorn the fronts of BBC Broadcasting House and the HQ of Transport for London.

St Michael and All Angels Church, at Haworth, where the Rev Patrick Bronte was incumbent from 1820 to 1861 and where members of the family including Emily and Charlotte, are buried in a family vault adjacent to the present south east chapel, has been awarded £115,000.

It will be used to help pay for reroofing the south nave, side aisle and tower.

The honorary treasurer at St Michael’s, Averil Kenyon, welcomed the news saying: “The church roof is leaking badly and that in turn is causing serious damage to the 19th century wall paintings inside.”

Also among the other recipients are the Church of the Epiphany, Gipton, Leeds, which receives £189,000 to carry out work including pointing the east gable and stabilising the turret, and St Mary’s at Sprotbrough, Doncaster, where a £103,000 grant will help repair the chancel and aisle roofs, masonry, glazing and drainage. St Mary’s at Bolton-on-Swale, near Richmond, will use its £118,000 to renew roof slopes and carry out other works. St Nicholas, at Wetwang, near Driffield, has already received £49,000 to carry out emergency repairs.

The head of the Heritage Lottery Fund for Yorkshire and the Humber, Fiona Spiers, said last night: “Historic places of worship are one of our most treasured cultural assets. They occupy a unique position at the heart of communities up and down the country, and are a focus for so many civil and social activities in addition to their central purpose as a place for prayer and contemplation.”