30 C O N T E X T 1 0 5 : J U LY 2 0 0 8 DIANA EVANS English Heritage and places of worship Cathedrals, churches, chapels, meeting houses, synagogues, mosques, gurdwaras, mandirs and converted listed cinemas are among our historic places of worship. Many heritage professionals have a richly-textured history themselves.They have moved around, changed disciplines, relocated between countries and swapped roles, often proactively in seeking to stretch themselves afresh.The mix of experience is enriching: some IHBC members have personal stories that are as diverse as the buildings or environments they are seeking to conserve. I joined English Heritage’s policy team last January. After training as an Anglican curate and doing a range of work in adult education, I became Peterborough Diocesan Advisory Committee secretary in 1994. It was then considered reasonable for an administrator to deal with 365 listed buildings in two days a week. The review of the ecclesiastical exemption by the Newman Report (1997) stressed that a much more professional approach was necessary. The Council for the Care of Churches put emphasis on training DAC secretaries and the culture changed. Instead of simply shifting forms, more time was spent writing guidance notes, advising volunteers, encouraging sustainable good practice and promoting a positive conservation philosophy alongside pragmatic engagement with the need to make buildings more widely useable. While working full time, I enrolled at the College of Estate Management for a postgraduate diploma in the conservation of the historic environment. It rooted my daily work in study and enabled me to convince the IHBC that I could be a member. I was elected to the Council for the Care of Churches and joined the steering group of the SPAB Faith in Maintenance project. Places of worship are a major priority for English Heritage. Nearly half the Grade I listed buildings in England are churches. In 2005, research showed that 86 per cent of the population had visited a place of worship within the previous year. The vast majority of visitors did not know that those who worshipped in the buildings were also responsible for financing and supervising their maintenance. Forty-six per cent of respondents considered that taxation or the lottery should take over that duty of care. Public money already makes a substantial contribution through various grant schemes for places of worship, but such funding will never be available to cover the £185 million a year these buildings are estimated to need, just to keep them watertight and windproof. English Heritage estimates that there is an annual gap of £118 million between that figure and actual spending. On top of these churches, chapels, meeting houses, synagogues, mosques, gurdwaras and mandirs – not to mention listed cinemas and other buildings now used as places of worship but not originally built as such – are the cathedrals of England. These currently benefit from a dedicated grant scheme, thanks to the Wolfson Foundation’s partnership with English Heritage. Cathedrals, like most parish churches, are Shah Jahan Mosque, Woking (1899), listed Grade II* (Photo: English Heritage, NMR)
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjgyMjA=