'Too many churches' says historian

‘It’s all very well talking about preservation, but for what? We’ve got to face up to reality these churches can’t go on.’

Sir Roy Strong, historian, high steward of Westminster Abbey and devout Anglican is calling for the closure of half of the Church of England’s rural churches in England. Falling congregations are making many churches too expensive to maintain.

‘There are 10,000 rural churches in this country. There ought to be 5,000. It’s crazy,’ he tells Property Week.

The Church of England closes around 30 churches each year – under 0.2% of its total – and Sunday church attendance fell by 7% between 2000 and 2006. While the Anglican Church is suffering a fall in congregations, many other religions are experiencing a rise in worshippers (see boxes).

There are 16,200 functioning Anglican churches in England, which play host to 983,000 practising Anglicans each week. Many churches are ancient, listed buildings that are costly to sustain. Typically, they are underused on weekdays and the Church is encouraging vicars to offer their buildings for broader community uses, such as creches and post offices, to increase revenue.

But, if churches do close, there will be development opportunities for the private sector.

‘I have to deal with churches where the roof is falling down. It’s not what I went into the job for, that’s for sure,’ says Reverend Nigel Evans of the Chet Valley benefice in Norfolk. ‘We very much struggle to get enough [worshippers] in to pay the bills. We have to rely on grants from English Heritage to try and get by.’

Of the five churches that Evans preaches to in his benefice, the size of the congregations can be ‘sometimes around a dozen and sometimes nearly no one at all’.

This can, however, reflect up to 25% of the surrounding population because the churches are in small villages that have experienced urban migration to centres like Norwich, Great Yarmouth and King’s Lynn.

So, surely closure and consolidation would be the obvious answer, as Sir Roy Strong suggests?

There are 10,000 rural churches in this country. There ought to be 5,000

Sir Roy Strong

‘No, we have to be everywhere, however large or small the community is. It’s the Church’s duty,’ says Paul Lewis, pastoral and redundant churches secretary for the Church Commissioners, the managing body for the Church of England’s property assets.

‘Distribution has to reflect rural to urban migration by opening more churches in cities but there is still a remaining population that needs to have a place to worship,’ he says.

Evans is in agreement with Lewis rather than Strong and is against the closure of churches experiencing chronically low attendance.

‘I don’t think amalgamation of congregations works really,’ he says. ‘Each congregation is so unique they are unlikely to identify with other villages. If you close churches down, you shut down access and ultimately fewer people attend overall.’

The rise in prices of construction materials has led to many instances of churches being pillaged – there were around 2,500 lead thefts from Church of England churches last year and the Church has had to sell off sites because of high renovation costs. St Margaret’s Church in Hopton, Great Yarmouth, for example, has been put up for sale for £1 because of the Norman building’s renovation costs of £300,000.

‘Historically, the local village used to ensure the upkeep of the building. People used to be pragmatic and replace whatever was damaged with the most appropriate and cost-efficient materials,’ says Stephen Bowler, who is on the Church of England advisory committee.

‘The modern view is to learn to respect the past and emphasise preservation. This can be expensive and frustrating.’

An estimated £925m will be needed over the next five years to maintain and restore the Church’s buildings to a good level. The Church estimates that it will be able to raise around £625m of this figure through donations and fundraising, of which English Heritage will contribute 6%.

However, after other deductions it will still be left with a £270m shortfall. It is in discussions with the government to contribute half of the total but no timeframe has yet been set to come to an agreement.

Flock exchange

It is a waste of a perfectly good building to just use it on a Sunday. The church is there to serve God and the community. We should look for wider uses

Reverend Nigel Evans, norfolk

To make up some of this shortfall churches will have to make the most of their D1 class usage and increase revenues. Most would be able to double up as medical clinics, creches, education centres, libraries and art galleries.

Strong accepts such alternative uses as ‘a reason to go on’. In the past he recommended taking ‘an axe and hatchet to the utterly awful kipper-coloured choir stalls and pews, drag them out of the church and burn them in order to let in the local community’.

And on this subject the Church Commissioners and Evans who is attempting to set up a farmers market in one of his churches – concur.

‘It is a waste of a perfectly good building to just use it on a Sunday,’ says Lewis. ‘The church itself is supposed to be there to serve God and also to serve the community. We should look for wider uses.’

But where this is not successful churches must come to their ultimate end. This leaves potential for development and the involvement of the private sector. When selling a redundant church the Church Commissioners seeks a seller who proposes to use it for ‘appropriate’ purposes, which generally means that it will not sell to a brewery. This is not the case for all churches outside the Anglican Church, however (see box).

The Church Commissioners is more in favour of residential redevelopments, such as those carried out by Gloucestershire-based developer Stephen Levens. He has converted seven rural parish churches into homes.

‘There are two main types of problem that come with conversion,’ he acknowledges.

‘First there is potential resistance from the local community, and secondly there can be planning and heritage issues. There are instances in which the conservation costs of a church can be higher than the potential end value, which obviously makes them unfeasible.’

Redundancy is considered as an absolute final option, however, and, so long as the Church refuses to cut its numbers, its costs will not fall. The scope for such development and the number of redundant churches are thus likely to hinge only upon the government’s decision on whether it will grant the Church the extra funds it requires to sustain its buildings.

As ever, property and the economy mirrors society. With the religious landscape changing, the implications for hundreds of buildings and places across Britain are profound.

Original print headline - Lord preserve us