Sutterton Parish Church

St Mary’s Sutterton awarded a substantial  grant by the Heritage Lottery Fund.

A little over a year ago Sutterton Parochial Church Council (PCC) received funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) to pay for the planning of repairs and additions to St Mary’s Church. This Development phase was completed last autumn which enabled the PCC to make a second stage application to HLF for funding the Delivery of the Project.

This is to announce that the PCC’s second stage application has been successful and the PCC is to receive a confirmed grant from HLF of £182,200 which will pay for necessary repairs to the building and together with Church’s own funds will pay for improvements to the facilities within the building. Also, the grant will fund the cost of the provision of interpretive material to describe the rich heritage of the building and its place in the history of the village. The work should begin in the spring and be complete in late autumn this year. It is hoped, that with some restrictions, the Church will be able to function reasonably normally throughout the process. The famous Flower Festival will take place as usual at the end of April.
Repairs to the Church will consist of renewal of the lead roof and some timbers of the north transept roof. Also extensive work is necessary on the masonry of the north transept and the clerestory walls of the nave. The Project will include installing lavatories and a proper servery. The consequence of the provision of these facilities will be to ensure the continued and widened use by the building by the whole community of Sutterton

Local MP Matt Warman has said:

“I am delighted to hear that funding of a Heritage Lottery Fund bid has been secured by St Mary’s Church Sutterton. The inclusion of the church in the 2015 East Midlands Heritage at Risk register highlighted the poor condition of this Grade 1 Listed Place of Worship and the need for repairs to safeguard its future. I am pleased that this has been recognised with a funding award to allow repairs to take place and progress to be made on installing facilities.”
Speaking on behalf of the Parochial Church Council, Church warden, David Mossman says:
“Over the last year or so, for those of us directly involved with the Project, the Development phase has been an absorbing and deeply interesting process. There seems to be no end to the things to be discovered about the building and its associations. We can now look forward to the reality of seeing the repairs and improvements implemented and making the unfolding story of St Mary’s accessible to everyone.”

“We are incredibly grateful to the players of The Lottery, without whom, buildings such as St Mary’s would face a bleak future. The PCC is determined that when the Project is complete, players of the Lottery will be proud and happy with what they have contributed to.”

About the Heritage Lottery Fund.

Grants programme applications are assessed in two rounds. A first-round pass is given when HLF has endorsed outline proposals and earmarked funding. A first-round pass may also include an immediate award to fund the development of the project. Detailed proposals are then considered by HLF at second-round and as long as plans have progressed satisfactorily and according to the original proposal, an award for the project is confirmed.
Thanks to National Lottery players, we invest money to help people across the UK explore, enjoy and protect the heritage they care about – from the archaeology under our feet to the historic parks and buildings we love, from precious memories and collections to rare wildlife.

This is a quiet time while we wait for decisions to be taken elsewhere.

Our second stage Lottery Application was submitted on schedule at the end of September. It was accepted for consideration by HLF and we know that the Application will go before the decision maker at HLF on 14 December. To finally complete our Development Phase we await the production of one more report. This is concerned with the origins of the stone that was used to build the original medieval church.

The object of the report is to assist with choosing the stone to be used to replace that which has perished. The fact we await this report should not have a negative effect on our Application.

We have applied for a Faculty (which is the Church’s equivalent of applying for planning permission) and this will be considered by the Diocesan Advisory Committee (DAC) also on 14 December. The way that works is the DAC will advise the Chancellor of the Diocese on the merits or otherwise of the Project. We have been careful to work closely with the DAC as our plans have evolved so we hope the process of obtaining a Faculty will go smoothly.
Meanwhile, the task of exploring the heritage of the church continues. We have always known that parish accounts for the years 1483 to 1537 are kept at the Bodleian Library in Oxford. Recently, we have attempted to discover more of what these documents contain. There is much to be done.

An interesting question is; how did these documents find their way to Oxford? We know that they were bequeathed to the Bodleian in about 1770 by a man called Rawlinson but how did he come by them? We know that there have been thoughts in the past that the accounts should be returned to this part of the world. However, we understand they have survived in wonderfully good condition in Oxford. The probability is they would not be in such a good state if they had remained in Sutterton. The solution is probably to leave them in a place where they are properly cared for and to have copy near at hand.