DEWSBURY MINISTER
Dewsbury Minster - named as one of Britain's 500 Holiest Sites - has secured Heritage Lottery Funding of £50,400 for urgent roof repairs and to better promote its links with the pilgrim, St Paulinus.
Exhibition boards will be revamped and tour literature revised for this ancient Ecclesiastical site, where the missionary St Paulinus preached and celebrated mass almost 1,400 years ago.
The Minster is a Grade II* town centre church still serving the community of Dewsbury and surrounding areas and the team rector, the Revd Canon Kevin Partington said the vital funding would greatly assist in securing the long term future of this ancient building.
Richard Middleton, Churchwarden and Project Co-ordinator says: ‘Our motto is “Building for the future on the foundations of the past”. We are, therefore, delighted to have secured a grant from The Heritage Lottery Fund for this essential work. We have always supported, and will continue to support the community of Dewsbury and surrounding districts and it’s great to know that we are a step closer to preserving this historic building, the oldest in Kirklees, for another century.’
Work will start in the next few weeks and should be finished within six months. The estimated cost of the total scheme is approx. £84,000.
The Project will replace the South Transept and Lady Chapel roofs, currently lined in felt and in a poor state of repair and provide new and additional lighting to areas that are currently poorly illuminated revamp the shop area and revitalize some of the display boards.
New local volunteers will be trained to offer guided tours of this ancient place of worship, which was named in 2012 in a widely publicised book, ‘The 500 Holiest sites in Britain.’
Essential conservation repairs will also be carried out to better protect the Heritage Centre from water ingress. The Heritage Centre is home to ancient Saxon stones - some date circa AD 850 and which formed part of a huge preaching cross that stood outside the Church until the reign of Henry VIII.
The building is a focal point for the community, where a programme of mission and hospitality is extended to all, including the most vulnerable in our society. The building’s community rooms are used on a weekly basis by agencies and groups (such as Alzheimers Society and Weightwatchers) and the volunteer Welcome Team members are given appropriate training to cope with the many issues that confront them every day of the week.