WORK is set to get underway to repair the ‘manky’ roof of a Malvern Link church following a £20,000 cash boost.
St Matthias CofE Church was handed the £19,100 injection from the Listed Place of Worship Roof Repair Fund and will spend the money on repairing the tiling on the north aisle, which is full of vegetation and breaking down with frost.
The grant will cover about two thirds of the work which needs to be carried out, and the Church Road site will pay a further £9,500 to complete it.
Martin Purser, who has been churchwarden for about two years, told The Observer plans had been in place to revamp the roof but financial restrictions had held them back.
“We have been planning to get repairs for some time but it turned out to be very expensive,” he said.
“We were working out how we were going to fund it when last December this fund appeared on the horizon.
“We have known it needed doing for at least two to three years but these things take time and being a listed building everything has to be planned and all sorts of permissions granted.
“It needs replacing quite urgently so this came at a perfect time. I keep on saying I don’t want the roof to last another winter and it is looking pretty manky.
“In due course it would start leaking and when that starts happening you get damp into the plaster work underneath and plaster starts falling down, beams start rotting and eventually you lose the church.
“It is one of the rules in looking after an old building, you must keep it dry.
“If you keep it dry everything else is okay but if you don’t you are in all sorts of trouble.”
St Matthias was one of about 500 churches nationwide to receive a grant, while a further six were handed out in Worcestershire.
Mr Purser, who has been attending the church for about ten years, said they were also looking to make the site more approachable to a wider audience.
“We recognise we serve a community and serve a need in the community,” he added.
“We would like to find more ways of using it for the benefit of the community, that is why we are keen to keep it dry and that is why we were very glad to have this money.
“It is wonderful because it means we will be able to use what money we have for other things and pursue the sorts of ideas we have been talking about.”
The roof work is expected to be completed by September.
