Church wins £500,000 grant for restoration work

A church has been awarded £500,000 to have its tower, steeple and part of its nave roof rebuilt.

The money was given to the Friends of Nash and Boraston Churches group by the National Lottery's Heritage Fund, for repairs to St John the Baptist church in Nash, Shropshire.

Bobbie Matulja, the church warden, said the money would also be spent on a number of community projects.

She said it was "an awful lot of money and it's really the end product of 10 years of working with two churches that are both on the heritage at risk register".

Matulja said when she took over as church warden in 2015, "the north aisle looked like a crime scene".

"It was cordoned off with red and white tape and do not enter signs, because there was galloping rot in the floor, there were holes in the floor," she said.

The Friends group was set up soon after she became church warden, to raise money for St John the Baptist and for Boraston Church.

Both are listed as medieval churches in need of repair.

Matulja said the group had to go through a three-stage bidding process before getting the money.

"Being a heritage fund project we have an opportunity to deliver all sorts of community projects," she said.

That will include reusing timber and stone from the tower and spire, resurrecting a Jacobean table and building bird and bat boxes.

She said there would also be a new website and work to improve the experience for people visiting the church.

The aim was to "encourage more people to engage with the building, because its not just about worship," she said.

More grants will be applied for, to make improvements to the kitchen and toilets and she said she always knew the warden role would put her "in at the deep end".

But she said she aimed to "step forward with faith and be fearless".

"To do these things you have to be fearless," she added.

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