First step towards saving historic Derbyshire church

The historic church of St. Mary, Marston-on-Dove, Derbyshire, has been awarded a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) in response to its appeal to save the church tower from imminent collapse.

HLF has earmarked £156,300 towards the project and awarded an upfront development grant of £20,300. This will be used to progress plans in order to apply for the full award at a later date.

The earliest parts of the church date from the 13th century and the danger is caused by ivy which has rooted itself in the north wall of the nave over a number of years. The tower’s parapet is unstable and it has become clear that urgent repairs are required to prevent a masonry collapse and further damage to the whole building. Experts from English Heritage placed St. Mary’s on its ‘At Risk’ register, and recently described the condition of the tower as ‘Very Bad’.

The Vicar of St. Mary’s, Revd. Andy Murphie, has formed a rescue committee which is chaired by local resident and retired businessman, Piet Walton-Knight. Speaking on behalf of the committee, the Vicar commented: “We are extremely grateful to the Heritage Lottery Fund for their grant which will allow us to commission a thorough technical survey of the problem. This is the first step in protecting the structure of the church so that it can continue to serve future generations of our community as it has for the last 900 years.”

“We only discovered the full extent of the danger to the building as a result of recent expert inspections, but it has been great to see how people have got together to support us. Once the technical survey is complete, we will be in a position to estimate the likely scale of the costs. In addition to our application to the Heritage Lottery Fund, we are looking for support from both the church and from the local community.”

St. Mary’s Church is a Grade 1 Listed Building serving the communities of Marston-on-Dove, Hilton and Hoon. mentioned in the Domesday Book, and with a font dating from 1081. The tower was constructed around 1350, and houses one of the oldest bells in Derbyshire, cast by John de Stafford in 1366. The church also has a recessed spire with three tiers of dormer windows. Internally, the church’s architecture is in the Early English style.