UK: Drones help safeguard Yorkshire’s churches

The National Churches Trust has received £90,100 from the Heritage Lottery Fund for the Yorkshire Maintenance Project to help keep churches and chapels in Yorkshire in good condition and to prevent the need for expensive repairs.

Drone: source: National Churches Trust

Drone surveys of churches, training workshops to help volunteers maintain church buildings and ‘Maintenance Booker’ a new website allowing churches of all denominations to book gutter clearances and other urgent maintenance tasks are the key parts of the Yorkshire Maintenance Project.

The Yorkshire Maintenance Project will focus on helping to sustain the rich religious built heritage of Yorkshire. There are 1,095 listed places of worship in Yorkshire. This total includes 346 Grade I churches, buildings of the highest heritage significance. However, maintenance of these important historic buildings is often neglected, putting their future at risk.

The Yorkshire Maintenance Project will be led by the National Churches Trust, the UK’s church repair and support charity. Partners in the project will include SPAB, Museum of London Archaeology, and the Dioceses of Sheffield and York to pilot systems for the maintenance scheme in Yorkshire. The project will also work with the Roman Catholic Church and the Methodist Church in Yorkshire.