St Mary’s Restoration Update

The long-planned “Uplift!” restoration work on St Mary’s Priory Church in the heart of Totnes is about to start! Soon, after many years of planning, local support & much fundraising to reach the target of £1.69 million, the floors will be re-laid, new heaters installed, a new servery, accessible toilet and a more flexible space created for use by all the community.

The Uplift! Update posters at the entrances to St Mary’s give the latest information. In the past month, the church has been prepared for work to begin with reduced services since January while the fixtures & fittings have been removed for safekeeping. The various successful grants, particularly from the National Lottery Heritage Fund, have enabled the project to appoint two people as Activities Coordinators as a job share, Jess Langton and Grace Deathridge who, along with church members, have been working for the last month towards closure, whilst establishing community contacts.

Jess and Grace are planning the first stages of the programme which will work with a very wide range of local groups that are interested in being part of the community activities when the church reopens later this year.

The other vital part of the project is to finalise the restoration. There has been a delay in appointing contractors as we confirm costs and timings for work and reopening. There is, also, a crucial financial issue to resolve which has occurred since the fundraising reached its target. The government has announced that the national scheme which for many years has reimbursed the cost of VAT from church restorations (the ‘Listed Places of Worship’ scheme) is with effect from April 1st massively reduced and, despite St Mary’s completing the fundraising and grant bodies agreeing the plan, this decision has left a hole of up to £200,000 in the budget. The church plans are to be reviewed as part of the contract appointment process so there is some uncertainty until that has happened.

Some better news is that we have just been awarded a grant of £25,000 from the Beatrice Laing Trust, for which we are very grateful.

In the meanwhile, the ‘Uplift!’ planning work is continuing apace under a lead Project Manager, Phil Lewis, working to a Project Board led by the Rector Fr. Jim Barlow. Main church services continue at St John’s Bridgetown and for all updates please check https://www.stmarystotnes.org