Haworth Parish Church restoration goes ahead
Haworth Parish Church will stage its last service in its historic Victorian church on Sunday, July 8th 2012.
But the church open for business again some 15 weeks later in mid-October after the first stage of its major restoration project: the replacement of its south-facing roofs and refurbishment of the tower, has been completed.
The Parish Church has embarked on a five-year, three-stage restoration project which it is anticipated will eventually cost in the region of £1.25 million and building work for the first stage of that plan which start have started in late June will cost £227,000.
Rev. Peter Mayo-Smith, the priest in charge at Haworth Parish Church, said: “It’ll be wonderful to see the building work start after all our fund-raising work.”
While the building work is being undertaken the parish church will be holding most of its services across the other side of Haworth’s Church Street in the Patrick Bronte-designed Old School Room.
Added Rev. Mayo-Smith: “We’ve got some long-standing wedding arrangements for the church which we will honour and we’ve been negotiating with our architect and contractors to ensure that the building looks as good as possible for the wedding couples. But, apart from those ceremonies, we will temporarily move home across Church Street.”
The fund-raising programmes for the first stage of the parish church restoration are continuing as they are still some £27,000 of hitting their target.
Grants worth £115,000 come from English Heritage to enable the development work on the project to be undertaken and a significant contribution to be made towards the building work.
Since then the Church has raised approaching £100,000 from donations by well-wishers; securing grants from trusts; staging their own events and receiving funds raised from community projects such as the Haworth Calendar. and the Haworth Beer Festival. [N.B. The latter event was supported by Eagle Intermedia's Bronte Country - please see separate news item entitled "Eagle Intermedia sponsors beers for Bronte Country" for more information.]
John Huxley, chairman of the Church’s Future Group, the body charged with searching for grant funding, said: “We are optimistic we will hit our target for the first stage of £227,000 even though we’ve still got around £27,000 to find.
“We an application for a grant with a major national funder; our own cash-raising programmes are still attracting support and we have high expectations of attracting support from the Government’s Listed Places of Worship Fund. But we’re conscious that we must continue to earn more money by our own efforts.”
For more information about the Haworth Parish Church Restoration and the building work please contact Rev. Peter Mayo-Smith e-mail: rector@haworthchurch.co.uk
[N.B. Please mention the Eagle Intermedia Bronte Country website when making your enquiries.]
[News item based on press release supplied by John Huxley - 5th June 2012.]
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