Cathedral bids for funds for urgent roof repairs

A cathedral is hoping to be awarded part of a £92m grant to carry out "urgent" repairs to stem damage to its roof.

Peterborough Cathedral has begun the bidding process for a share of the Places of Worship Renewal Fund, a new national grant programme delivered by Historic England and funded by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.

The Norman cathedral, which is almost 1,000 years old, faced "a vital programme of roof and rainwater repairs" which would cost about £230,000.

Its chief operating officer, Jack Pishhorn, said: "The repairs we're planning are urgent, and with heavier rainfall becoming more common, the risks only grow if we don't act."

Writing about its bid for funding on Facebook, the cathedral said: "Caring for a 1,000-year-old cathedral means keeping a constant eye on the one thing that protects everything beneath it: the roof."

It wrote: "Right now, water is finding its way in. Increasingly heavy rainfall is overwhelming an old drainage runway... spilling into the roof void where it threatens the vaulting above the west front."

While areas had been "patched", it said corroded fixings "left gaps that let in more water still".

"These are problems that only grow if left alone, and acting now means protecting irreplaceable historic fabric, strengthening the building's resilience to a changing climate, and avoiding far costlier repairs down the line."

Historic England said the Places of Worship Renewal Fund (PWRF) was "designed to support the repair of England's treasured places of worship and targeted at places of most need".

"A total of £92m has been allocated to the fund over a four-year period, with £23m per annum," it added.

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