Historic Churches 2019

BCD SPECIAL REPORT ON HISTORIC CHURCHES 26 TH ANNUAL EDITION 5 The Taylor Review strongly endorsed the prevailing view that local support is crucial if buildings are to be sustainable, not only in terms of financial contributions but also volunteering of skills and willingness to use the building in new but appropriate ways. The pilot will test this assumption: does increasing footfall and making people feel more welcome actually result in greater income and more practical help to keep the building in good repair? The pilot provides community development advisers who can encourage congregations to forge new links and build on the hospitality already offered. The advisers can also flag up issues in the local plan, or opportunities for funding if community infrastructure levy money may be available. Most of all, the advisers can help to identify unexplored local needs that would be very close to the congregation’s own vision of ministry: the ‘knit and natter’ group that is now too big for someone’s home; the council meeting that can’t fit into the village hall schedule but could use the vestry; the drop-in venue for the local police team. Some congregations will be affronted at the suggestion that they are not at the heart of their community already but there are very few that have explored all possible networks and developed every mutually beneficial relationship. It’s important to remember that some congregations either won’t be able to share their worship space in this way (although they may have other premises that can be used), are already doing everything possible given their resources and the local needs, or are simply in an area where community space is not in demand. There are approximately 332 listed places of worship in Greater Manchester and 533 in Suffolk so the fabric officer and community adviser in each area would never be able to support them all. In an attempt to widen the access to the pilot messages, 16 workshops have been offered to provide basic information: six on maintenance, six on community engagement and four on planning and managing projects, whether those are repairs or changes to the building. Workshops were not part of The Taylor Review recommendations but were incorporated into the pilot as a way of increasing its potential outreach and to enable peer-to-peer learning, building capacity and a sense of not being the only one facing the challenges common to historic places of worship. This approach was taken in the light of very positive feedback from the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings’ two HLF-funded projects, Faith in Maintenance and Maintenance Cooperatives, that used workshops as a key element in project delivery. Historic England’s support officers working with places of worship have also found them a good way of sharing best practice and building confidence. The evaluation of their impact in the pilot will be important: if they attract a wider range of faiths and denominations than pilot staff can reach in person then they are clearly an important element of reaching those who take responsibility for these buildings. It is too soon to tell if the pilot is touching the people who most need what it offers – the ones who are unlikely to sign up for a workshop, ask for help or apply for a small grant. Since September 2018 over 200 places of worship have made contact with the pilot staff and 136 site visits have taken place, but special effort is being made to connect with those people facing the greatest challenges and those most reluctant to seek support. The length of the pilot is constraining. Eighteen months is a very short time in which to achieve all the objectives and the pressure on the staff involved is considerable. In Suffolk there are logistical issues because of the size of the county. In Manchester the age of the buildings, their size and complexity means that access issues make even a basic repair, such as replacing a few slipped slates, disproportionately expensive. The need to communicate the fundamental message that maintenance really matters is already clear in both areas. Historic England has commissioned a separate small research project to explore the value of maintenance in the context of deterioration over time and the recognition that, in the end, even the best cared-for materials come to the end of their lives. The research is in progress but we hope it will provide credible information to demonstrate that, even if the scaffolding costs more than the repair, there are real cost benefits to sorting out those slipped slates. If it does, that’s a message for the whole heritage sector. The Taylor Review was a bold initiative and the government responded very constructively to it. The pilot is certainly making life rosier for some congregations in Suffolk and Manchester and will hopefully provide inspiration to many more in the future and lead to longer- term national initiatives. Further Reading Department for Culture, Media and Sport, The Taylor Review: Sustainability of English Churches and Cathedrals , 2017 ERS Research & Consultancy, ‘National Heritage Memorial Fund: Listed Places of Worship Roof Repair Fund Evaluation, Final Report’, 2017 The Church of England, Statistics for Mission 2017: Social Action , The Church of England Research and Statistics, 2018 Topmark (LPOW), ‘Listed Places of Worship Trust’, 2014, www.lpwscheme.org.uk/ Historic England, ‘Taylor Review Pilot’, 2019, https://bit.ly/2C41sh1 DIANA EVANS is head of places of worship strategy at Historic England. She joined English Heritage in 2008 after several years as a diocesan advisory committee secretary. She is on the DCMS Taylor Pilot Advisory Group for the pilot. Sixteen workshops have been made available to widen access to the pilot’s messages, covering maintenance, community engagement and planning and managing projects. This workshop took place at Bolton Victoria Methodist Mission. (Photo: Historic England)