WORSHIPPERS are celebrating after receiving funding to complete a ten-year project to save their 13th century church.
St Andrew’s Church, Winston, has been awarded £15,000 from the National Churches Trust and £7,000 from the Wolfson Foundation.
It means parish fundraisers can finish their programme of making the church watertight for the next 100 years and beyond.
Joyce Wilson, churchwarden, described the news as “tremendous”. She said: “It was identified ten years ago that the chancel and nave roofs needed replacement and the church was put on the At Risk register by English Heritage due to the water ingress and need for replacement of tiles and rotten roof timbers and for repairs to the walls of the chancel.”
It was recommended that the project be split into two projects with the chancel roof to be repaired first. This was finished in 2014.
The second part of the project was fixing the nave roof.
Fundraising was started immediately with flower festivals, open gardens, Christmas tree festivals, Christmas markets, Summer garden parties, raffles, nearly new sales, organ recitals and cheese and wine evenings.
Ms Wilson said: “All of these have been supported by the local and wider communities, developing friendships as new residents to the village have offered their help and support. The Parochial Church Council would like to thank them for their overwhelming support and generosity over the years, resulting in £70,000 being raised of the about £300,000 spend when the total project is complete.
“We have also been generously supported by grant providers over these two projects with English Heritage being the main provider for the chancel roof and the Garfield Weston Trust, National Churches Trust, Wolfson Foundation, The Hedley Trust, Durham Diocese, Allchurches Trust, Northumbria Historic Churches Trust and the Sir John Priestman Trust being the supporters for the bave roof. Their support has enabled this small parish of Winston of approximately 200 houses to save their medieval church for future generations.”
