CCT awarded £28,550 by Enovert Community Trust for Bristol conservation project
The Churches Conservation Trust is delighted to have been awarded a grant of £28,550 from Enovert Community Trust for a major capital repair project at St Thomas the Martyr Church in Bristol.
The grant will support urgent work at the church which has been in the care of the Trust since 1988 and is the vital match funding element required for a Heritage Stimulus Fund grant for the project awarded last year as part of the Government’s Culture Recovery Fund.
Meriel O’Dowd Conservation Project Manager for the West Region said “we are incredibly grateful for the support of Enovert Community Trust. Due to significant water damage, the funding will enable re-roofing of the tower, east lobby, west lobby, and two western vestries alongside repair and upgrade of the rainwater goods. The conservation work is complex, but we hope to have work completed by the end of June.”
St Thomas the Martyr in the heart of Bristol is a popular community space used on a regular basis by the Romanian Orthodox Church is particularly popular as an events space. The church is popular with visitors keen to explore the heritage of the area with 6000 visitors annually prior to Covid 19. The area surrounding the church has undergone significant development with new flats and student accommodation and the conservation work is critical to ensure that the building is safe for visitors, to continue its use by the community and to protect the historic fabric of the church.
About Enovert Community Trust
Enovert Community Trust provides grants to support community and environmental projects in a number of locations across the UK. The Trust provides funding to a broad range of projects that bring environmental benefits and have as big an impact as possible on the community.
The Trust distributes funds which are derived from a tax placed on the landfilling of waste and has distributed more than £25.2 million in grants to community and environmental projects to date.
More about the Culture Recovery Fund:
This vital funding is from the Culture Recovery Fund for Heritage and the Heritage Stimulus Fund - funded by Government and administered at arms length by Historic England and the National Lottery Heritage Fund. Both funds are part of the Government’s £1.57 billion Culture Recovery Fund which is designed to secure the future of Britain’s museums, galleries, theatres, independent cinemas, heritage sites and music venues with emergency grants and loans.
During the first round of funding 445 organisations in total received a share of £67 million from the Culture Recovery Fund for Heritage to help with costs for operating, reopening and recovery. This included famous heritage sites across the country, from Wentworth Woodhouse in Yorkshire to Blackpool’s Winter Gardens, Blyth Tall Ship to the Severn Valley Railway, the International Bomber Command Centre in Lincolnshire to the Piecehall in Halifax.
With the launch of the second round of the Heritage Stimulus Fund, more than £30 million has been distributed to support major projects and programmes of repair and restoration at nationally important heritage sites across the county which have been hit by the ongoing impact of the pandemic. The Heritage Stimulus Fund has already enabled repair and maintenance work at more than 800 of the country’s treasured heritage assets and has protected the jobs of expert craftspeople working in the sector. The funds will save sites that are a source of pride for communities across the country.
