HAVING survived fires within the 14th and twentieth centuries, the dissolution of the monasteries, and acts of destruction through the Commonwealth, Selby Abbey has proved its resilience once more in securing a £1-million grant from the National Lottery Heritage Fund (NLHF).
The money, announced last week, will support a serious repair programme and the Abbey’s project “the Origin Stories”, designed to “tell the largely untold story of its medieval origins”, an NLHF press release said. Programmes will include a possibility to try traditional skills resembling willow weaving, stained-glass work, and embroidery, in addition to dedicated events for young people in monastic chants, graffiti workshops (using site hoardings), and training in biodiversity-enhancing gardening practices linked to the monastic gardens.
Established in 1069 as a Benedictine monastery, the Abbey was dedicated to Our Lord, the Blessed Virgin Mary, and St Germain, a French saint said to have visited England within the fifth century, where he preached and battled each heresy and the Picts and Scots. The founding story is that the primary Abbot, Benedict, a monk at Auxerre Abbey, was inspired by a vision of St Germain. The tale is represented within the stained-glass St Germain window dating back to 1906, which is able to undergo restoration as a part of the project.
Originally built from wood, the Abbey was rebuilt within the Romanesque and, later, Gothic style. Left intact, and serving as a parish church following dissolution, it has been prolonged and reconstructed over the centuries, with greater than £40,000 (£6 million in today’s money) raised after a fireplace in 1906 (mourned as a “national disaster” by the Church Times).
The Vicar of Selby Abbey, Canon John Weetman, said last week that, with the assistance of the grant, “we are going to have the opportunity to be certain that this glorious Abbey is preserved for future generations to enjoy. We will have the opportunity to involve many more people from the area people and beyond in discovering how the Abbey and the town got here to be here, and the way they developed during those early years of their history in medieval times.”
The grant forms a part of a sum of greater than £1.8 million allocated to places of worship in Yorkshire prior to now six months. All Saints’, Hessle, a Grade I listed church in East Riding rebuilt within the twelfth century, has been awarded £229,768 for its “Towering Presence” project. In addition to repairs that may save the Fifteenth-century tower, whose spire is an area landmark, reaching up 145 feet, an arts programme is planned. The Vicar, the Revd Gemma Turner, whose earliest predecessor is listed within the Domesday Book, said that the church was “absolutely thrilled”.
South of Yorkshire, St Denys’s, Eaton, a Grade I listed village church within the diocese of Leicester dating back to the twelfth century, has been awarded a £250,000 grant to support its restoration. This will form a part of the larger “Eaton InSpired” project, which seeks to also install an accessible lavatory and baby changing facilities, improve biodiversity with swift boxes within the tower, and explore and present the history of the village and its ironstone foundations. The total project is £390,000, and there remains to be about £75,000 to boost.
The Revd Sue Bradley, who chairs the PCC and is the project leader, said that the cash “makes all of the difference to securing our beautiful historic church for the long run and ensuring its removal from the Historic England ‘At Risk’ register.” Like Selby Abbey, the church is devoted to a French saint. It is alleged that St Denys, patron saint of Paris, was one in every of seven missionaries sent to convert Gaul within the third century.
Last September, the NLHF announced that it expected to speculate £100 million in places of worship over the following three years (News, 13 September 2024). Earlier this month, the director of Friends of Friendless Churches, Rachel Morley, announced that the charity would take seven redundant places of worship into its care in 2025 — greater than it had ever taken in its 68-year history. It currently has 64 churches in its care.
