The Cathedrals Fabric Commission for England (CFCE) has welcomed a new fund of £500,000 for cathedral fabric repairs thanks to the Wolfson Foundation, a charity supporting excellence in the fields of science and medicine, health, education and the arts and humanities.

CFCE Chairman, the Rt Hon Frank Field MP, said: "We welcome this important initiative from the Wolfson Foundation, which has continued its support for England's historic cathedrals, after English Heritage had to stop their ring-fenced funding."

Paul Ramsbottom, Chief Executive of the Wolfson Foundation, said: "Cathedrals are the country's most precious buildings.  They are a critical part of our national heritage.  Through this partnership with the CFCE we hope, not only to aid their conservation, but also to encourage other funding too.  We are delighted to be working alongside the CFCE."

All Church of England cathedrals with some Pre-Reformation fabric will be eligible.  Grants will be for major repairs to historic fabric (eg, stonework and roofs) but will not be offered for development works.  Cathedrals will be expected to obtain matching funding.

Frank Field added: "This new fund is a tangible response to changing economic and political conditions, and demonstrates the key role that private funding can play in securing the future of England's magnificent cathedrals.  We hope that this initiative will fire the imagination of other foundations.  I believe that this is an early example of how 'The Big Society' will work."

Notes

The CFCE is a statutory body, with both regulatory and advisory functions.  It draws together many of the country's most respected experts in their particular fields, who give generously of their time on a voluntary basis. Its Annual Review for 2009 may be found on-line at: http://www.cofe.anglican.org/about/cathandchurchbuild/cathedralsguidance/annualreview09.pdf .

The Wolfson Foundation is a charity established in 1955 to support excellence, generally through the funding of capital infrastructure in the fields of science and medicine, health, education and the arts and humanities.  The Foundation's endowment is currently some £725 million, with an annual allocation of approximately £35 million. By 2010 more than £600 million had been awarded in grants (in excess of £1 billion in real terms). Over 8,000 projects have been funded.

Cathedrals are great shrines not only for worship but also for welcoming the modern pilgrim, and it is a responsibility as well as a privilege to consider mission and worship alongside the preservation of the heritage.  They not only have to find the necessary funds to maintain some of England's most architecturally and historically significant buildings, but 2009 was the last year of English Heritage's 19-year-old ring-fenced Cathedrals Grant Scheme.

According to English Heritage's Cathedrals Fabric Survey of 2009 six cathedrals (Canterbury, Chichester, Lincoln, Salisbury, Winchester and York) face major repairs with an estimated cost of more than £3.5 million in each case and totaling approximately £50 million.

The Cathedral and Church Buildings Division also runs a number of other grants programmes for churches and cathedrals and the CFCE is responsible for two of them.

• The English Cathedrals Repair Fund covers repair and conservation of contents of Church of England Cathedrals; it also makes small grants towards fabric repair schemes.
• The Cathedral Amenities Fund assists with the preservation and improvement of the visual amenity of UK cathedrals, abbeys and parish churches which substantially date from before 1714.  Three categories of applications will be considered: physical improvements; fabric conservation; and enabling work.

More information about the Joint Cathedral Fabric Repair Fund (and the online application form) can be found on the Churchcare website: http://www.churchcare.co.uk/funding.php?IP .