LEICESTER SECULAR SOCIETY IN PLEA TO CELEBRITY ATHEISTS TO HELP RAISE £40,000

This article appears in today's Leicester Mercury:

Leicester Secular Society in plea to cleebrity atheists to help raise £40,000

by Peter Warzynski

Celebrity atheists are being asked to help pay for the renovation of a society's headquarters.

Members of Leicester Secular Society are writing to 40 well-known people, including Richard Dawkins and Ricky Gervais, in a bid to raise £40,000 for the project.

The society is also appealing to local secularists to support the scheme to improve the Victorian building in Humberstone Gate.

Work will involve installing an accessible toilet, new kitchen, hearing loop, second fire exit and internal renovation.

The total cost is about £65,000, but the organisation has £25,000 in its reserves which it will use.

Harry Perry, president of the branch, said: "There are certain pressing problems on the ground floor where we have our meetings.

"We've appealed to about 40 celebrity atheists but I don't want to rely solely on them – we'll need our members to help us, too.

"The last census also identified that 24 per cent of the city are non-religious, so we're reaching out to them for help as well."

He said a number of attempts to secure funding had been unsuccessful and the organisation needed the full amount by the end of July.

"We approached the Heritage Lottery Fund, but it said there wasn't enough of a heritage aspect," said Mr Perry.

"The Big Lottery Fund turned us down, too, because it's too much about the building and not enough about the community.

"In fact, 95 per cent of sources of funding require we are a charity or a religious organisation and we're neither."

Leicester Secular Society has about 150 members and has used the grade-II-listed building for 130 years.

It hosts a variety of events, including talks, lectures and meetings by a number of organisations.

Leicester City Council has offered to look at ways of supporting the society with some of the renovation work.

Mayor Sir Peter Soulsby said: "We'll help where we can with the project. In particular, we'd like it to include some work to the front of the building.

"The Secular Hall is a very important building in Leicester and unique one in the country.

"It has a proud history and is a place where people such as William Morris came to talk about not just secularism but society more generally."

Donate via their website at: www.leicestersecular society.org.uk

THE "JEWEL OF LEICESTER'S CHURCHES" NEEDS SUPPORT

This article appears in today's Leicester Mercury:

The "jewel of Leicester's churches" needs support

I was pleased to hear a "significant grant" of £40,000 was made just before Christmas to St Mary de Castro, from the National Churches Trust.

Known as the "jewel of Leicester's churches", grade I-listed St Mary de Castro is nationally important: it is where King Henry VI was knighted in 1426 and it is thought the poet Geoffrey Chaucer was married there.

King Richard III's body is also believed to have lain in rest there after his death at the Battle of Bosworth.

Today, with Leicester Castle, it forms one of the important heritage areas of the city.

However, at more than 900 years old, its 80ft-tall spire is needing urgent financial attention, as Vic Allsop, of St Mary de Castro explains: "We are delighted English Heritage/Heritage Lottery Fund has made a significant in principal grant of £187,000 towards restoration.

"We're in phase one, the development project. Phase two is the work itself.

"When the project started and scaffolding was erected inside the spire, close inspection revealed bad news.

"Previous inspections with 'cherry pickers' and binoculars did not identify cracks in the tower that were severe, putting the potential stability and future viability of the spire at stake.

"We had to act quickly: permission was given to carry out advance works to stabilise what was potentially a serious situation for the church.

"At the churches own cost of £30,000, the spire was stabilised and made safe by introducing nine stainless steel bands inside the spire."There is a possibility the spire will need to be taken down and rebuilt, which could potentially exceed £500,000. The phase one specification will confirm the final figure.

"The damage to the spire was caused by previous restorations, inappropriate stone and concrete pointing at the top of the spire, which has put pressure on and is eroding the stonework below.

"Regular inspections take place from the internal scaffolding. In the summer, the SOS (Save Our Spire) Appeal started. We have been overwhelmed by many offers of support and it is clear St Mary de Castro has the support of the community.

"We recently launched the Save our Stones Appeal with the help of one of our sponsors Newby Castleman. This is a practical way in which people can make a contribution to the restoration of the spire."

For more information on how you can help, contact appeal co-ordinator Rosemary Mason on 07710 531792 or via: sosstmarydecastro@ btinternet.com

www.stmarydecastro.org.uk

BUILDING SHARED HERITAGES: CULTURAL DIVERSITY IN LEICESTER

At the University of Leicester (Fielding Johnson Building) this morning for an open day: Building Shared Heritages: Cultural Diversity in Leicester.

Building Shared Heritages is a co-sponsored project at the University of Leicester. Along with the Arts & Humanities Research Council (AHRC), the National Co-ordinating Centre for Public Engagement (NCCPE) and the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF), the University of Leicester is assisting local groups to apply for grants of up to £10,000 to explore their local heritage.

The University of Leicester has a wide range of expertise and resources relating to local and community history in Leicester and Leicestershire. It is looking to widen access to these resources. The key areas that it is interested in developing with community groups are as follows:

• Trading heritage in Leicester
• Sport, music and social heritage in Leicester
• Civic and public heritage in Leicester
• Open spaces and the built environment in Leicester
• Memory of community, home, and local area heritage in Leicester

It’s the last of these five categories that offers potential for the Council of Faiths to get involved.

Deirdre O’Sullivan (Lecturer in Medieval Archaeology) gives a half-hour presentation to the audience of 80 or so about the Mapping Faith and Place project and the Leicester Faith Trail. She made several complimentary references to Leicester Council of Faiths during her presentation. she also described the next stage of the project, which is going to change tack from the general and historical to the particular and contemporary. They'll be focusing on one particular place of worship, Guru Tegh Bahadur Gurdwara on East Park Road. They'll keep updating  the Faith Trail, of course, which will include publishing a new version of the booklet.

CASH GRANTS WILL REPAIR CHURCHES

This article appears in today's Leicester Mercury:

Cash grants will repair churches

Some of the county's oldest churches will share more than half a million pounds of lottery cash for urgent repairs.

The 12th Century church of St Mary de Castro, the city's parish church, will receive £187,000 to fix stonework and look at ways to mend its crumbling spire, which has been shifting slightly, causing cracks.

Deputy churchwarden Michael Hay said: "This will make a very big difference. The church's council couldn't have raised the money itself.

"The spire is 500 years old and the stone is of pretty poor quality and has been weathered badly. It hasn't been repaired for nearly 100 years."

Most of the money will fund an investigation to find the best way to fix the spire.

Once that is complete a larger, more expensive repair project will begin.

Mr Hay said: "For the main job we'll be launching a county-wide fund-raising appeal once we know the full costs. We're expecting something in the order of £500,000 but it could be more."

St Peter's in Kirby Bellars, near Melton, will get £145,000 for masonry work on the tower and spire, which are crumbling so badly the church bells have not been rung in more than a year for fear of causing more damage.

Vicar, the Rev Peter Collins said: "I want to get the tower and spire restored so the bells can ring down the Wreake valley again, so this is absolutely terrific news."

Another church benefiting from the Heritage Lottery Fund cash will be All Saints Church in Seagrave, Charnwood, which will receive £66,000 to replace copper roofing and timber.

St Martin's in Stapleton, near Hinckley, will receive £31,000 to repair the spire, St Peter's in Redmile, near Bottesford, will get £47,000 to fix the roof and St Peter's in Tilton on the Hill, near Leicester, got £59,000 for tower repairs.

The money comes from the National Lottery and is given out by English Heritage. Places of worship for all faiths and denominations can get grants of up to £250,000.

Emma Sayer, head of Heritage Lottery Fund in the East Midlands, said: "Historic places of worship are an irreplaceable part of our heritage.

"In the past 10 years, the Heritage Lottery Fund has invested £155 million into these wonderful buildings."

For more information, visit: www.english-heritage.org.uk