Written evidence submitted by Peter Mann

Protecting built heritage inquiry

What are the most significant challenges facing owners and operators of built heritage assets, and how are they affecting what those sites can offer?

Case study, by Peter Mann, about St Denis’ church, East Hatley, Cambridgeshire. The church (but not the graveyard) is owned by the Friends of Friendless Churches.

SUMMARY

It is, surely, the mark of a civilised society that buildings like St Denis’ are kept as part of our built heritage for future generations to enjoy and appreciate – if only as a tribute to the skill, time and effort of past generations and the story they tell about our forebears. To have let St Denis’ become a roofless ruin, as so nearly happened, is the ‘don’t care’ attitude of the vandal and arsonist.

Not only has this restoration project rescued the only ancient building in East Hatley for posterity, but it has also provided a focus for local history and nature conservation, a home for bats and cave spiders and a community space for use by villagers and other people.

BACKGROUND

East Hatley, where I live, is a tiny village in South Cambridgeshire with 42 houses and a population of around 110.

It is one half of Hatley parish – Hatley St George is half a mile away (38 houses, population around 100); unlike East Hatley it has a shop and post office, playing field and functioning church.

The oldest building in East Hatley is the Church of St Denis – first recorded in 1217. It was restored in 1673 by Sir George Downing, lord of the manor at the time and commemorated by his coat of arms above the south door; Downing Street in London is named after him. William Butterfield, the notable Victorian architect, carried out a major restoration in 1874 on behalf of Downing College, Cambridge which owned the advowson.

St Denis’ was closed and made redundant in 1959. After the seating, altar and its few monuments had been removed, it was left empty and allowed to fall into disrepair.

The church authorities deconsecrated the building (but not the churchyard, now also a Local Nature Reserve) and gave it to South Cambridgeshire District Council (SCDC) in 1985; by the early 2000s it was virtually covered in ivy [fig 1], the considerable damage caused by the ivy, the elements and vandalism adding to the building's woes.

Fortunately, St Denis’ was listed Grade II* in 1967 by Historic England (list entry number 1128153).

Because of its listed status the district council, as the owner, was compelled to protect the building – removing the ivy in 2003 revealed a structure in a very sorry state [fig 2].

Through grants from English Heritage, SCDC’s own funds and a £5,000 contribution from Hatley Parish Council (£150,000 in all), the roof and walls were repaired sufficient to make the building a 'safe shell'; the parish council was particularly concerned the roof should be retiled with clay tiles rather than the cheaper corrugated sheeting SCDC preferred.

However, there was insufficient money to replace the floor (there was little left of the original) [figs 6 and 7] or windows (all smashed beyond repair, including Alexander Gibbs' c1890 stained glass east window) or repairs to anything else.

So, the building was left locked and the windows boarded up [fig 3] – still in the care of SCDC, which did not know what to do with it or were willing to invest in it.

Its solution, in late 2016, was to give the building to the Friends of Friendless Churches (FoFC) with a £60,000 dowry. The FoFC was founded in 1957 and is dedicated to the rescue, preservation and use of churches – there are over sixty in its portfolio.

In 2017, legal matters completed, the FoFC commenced on the first of four major restoration projects – 2018: new windows in the nave (with some rebuilding of the 14th century tracery) and new floor throughout; 2021: consolidation to the plaster and new windows in the chancel [fig 4]; 2022: major repairs to the crumbling plaster in the nave and rebuilding the reredos [fig 8].

The 2021 and 2022 work was largely paid for by the Culture Recovery Fund for Heritage, with the VAT element helped by the Listed Places of Worship Scheme.

The 2022 work also enabled St Denis' to be opened every day for quiet contemplation, for looking around and to display the history of the church, the village and local nature. (Previously, because the plaster inside was very crumbly, it was only opened for the annual Heritage Open Days festival.)

The FoFC's fourth project is to install a new stained glass east window – which it is funding from its own resources. A stained glass artist has been appointed, with the new window scheduled for installation in 2026.

In recognition of the work done by the FoFC to restore St Denis’, its local architect won a major ‘Best conservation’ award in 2023: https://www.hatley.info/news_events/news/st-denis-is-now-an-award-winning-church.

WHY BOTHER TO RESTORE, REBUILD, REPLASTER?

For centuries St Denis’ was East Hatley’s only village amenity, built from the very stones found in the fields here about, picked up one by one by the hands of those who lived here, brought to the site by wheelbarrow and cart and – with great skill – made into a watertight and stable structure.

Yes, preserving old buildings can involve a significant cost – nearly £½m on St Denis’ since 2000 – but how much of that would have been saved if the building had been looked after as soon as its doors were closed for services in 1959, when it was left to rot and the caprice of Nature and vandals?

During the 1960s practically everything on the inside was removed [fig 5] – some of it officially (the ‘furniture’ and memorials went into the ‘prefab’ church, which stood where 29 and 31 East Hatley now are), but anything deemed ‘portable’ was either stolen or vandalised. St Denis’ became a building with no glass in the windows and in great danger of collapse.

We are very fortunate the FoFC took on St Denis’, for without its enthusiasm for the church and the cash (public and its own) and expertise it has invested, it is more than likely St Denis’ would once again be sinking into a dilapidated building and the £180,000 of public money spent between 2002 and 2006 on removing the ivy and restoring the basic fabric, wasted.

The challenge now for St Denis’ – indeed, all heritage buildings – is to keep it in good condition. While the FoFC has an annual maintenance schedule for St Denis’ (backed by villagers’ regular checks for slipped tiles and action to keep drain covers clear of debris and the walls free of ivy and nettles) there will inevitably come a time when a structural repair is required – will there be any grants to help? If not, who pays?

HOW MUCH HAS IT COST TO SAVE ST DENIS’?

While we will never know the exact figure, I estimate the overall cost of restoring St Denis’ to be getting on for £500,000 since 2000 – for a plain, simple and uncomplicated country church.

There was the £30,000 for removing the ivy which had clothed the building (2003/4) and the £150,000 for rectifying all the damage the ivy had caused to the roof and walls (2005/6); the £90,000 the FoFC spent in 2018 on its first restoration project (on new windows in the nave and a new floor in the nave and the chancel), followed by a similar amount in 2021 (on plaster consolidation and new windows in the chancel) and again in 2022 on replastering much of the nave and other works.

That all comes to £450,000, give or take (and ignores the hidden cost of officials’ time). Most of the funding has come from the public purse in the form of grants, with the FoFC making up the shortfall from its own reserves.

The bulk of the 2002-2006 funding came from English Heritage and South Cambs District Council (owners of St Denis’ at the time) with a modest sum from Hatley Parish Council.

The dowry from SCDC, when it gave the church to the FoFC in 2016, paid for the majority of its phase one restoration, supplemented by funds raised by local residents, grants from Hatley Parish Council and Gamlingay and Hatley Parochial Church Council and a generous donation from the family of a relative buried in the churchyard.

The 2021 and 2022 funding came largely from the Culture Recovery Fund for Heritage, the £1.57 billion package to protect the UK’s culture and heritage sectors from the economic impacts of Covid-19 – which helped safeguard the jobs of the highly skilled craftsmen and women, without whom most of our built heritage would have disappeared long ago.

FINAL THOUGHTS

It is a point worth making that for heritage organisations like the FoFC, for whom grants had all but disappeared, the Culture Recovery Fund was a lifeline which enabled it to carry out repairs that might otherwise have taken years to fund. St Mary’s in Gamlingay and St Giles’ in Tadlow are other local beneficiaries of the Fund.

The United Kingdom is exceedingly fortunate to have accumulated so much built heritage and have so many heritage organisations which, encouraged by their supporters, are willing to own, care for and preserve our ancient stones, monuments, houses, places of worship and industrial buildings stretching back over thousands of years.

Set against that are funding challenges and a tax system which does not encourage very wealthy individuals or successful companies (with notable exceptions) to donate in the way which was once the norm.

Our built heritage should not be regarded as someone else’s problem, nor should demolition / replace with new-build be an easy option (with all the high CO2 and material costs both would entail).

St Denis’ church is an example of what was nearly lost, but thankfully saved through the concerns of local people, willing organisations and, crucially, the availability of state funds.

The one-off Culture Recovery Fund was all very well – but every aspect of our built heritage is unique, requiring time, money and materials to keep it intact: every government should want as its legacy a positive record towards our built heritage because it is a core element of our civilisation. Is this possible?