Final PKHT Historic Building’s Grant Presented
The 19th century Category B listed Roman Catholic Church of St Stephen’s was in need of extensive roof repairs and became the 329th and final recipient of financial assistance from Perth and Kinross Heritage Trust through our Historic Building Grants Scheme. The Trust offered the Parish our maximum award of £5000 at the beginning of their fundraising campaign and we’ve been delighted that our support has helped the parish access further grants to supplement their own fundraising efforts to meet the cost of the £427,000 project.
“the Trust’s Historic Building Grants Scheme has been an incredibly successful initiative that has helped safeguard nationally significant historic buildings right across Perth and Kinross. We’re very proud to have been able to assist individuals, groups and organisations such as the congregation of St Stephen’s in their efforts to continue using, maintaining and enjoying their historic buildings and commend them on the hard work in both fundraising and seeing the project through to completion.”
Sue Hendry (PKHT Chairman)
On behalf of St. Stephen’s R C Church, Fr Gregory Umunna, the parish priest expressed his gratitude to Perth and Kinross Heritage Trust for their kind and generous donation and said that:
‘‘The renovation work of St. Stephen’s Church will help preserve an important piece of local heritage for many more years, St Stephen’s having been designed by celebrated ecclesiastical architect Edward W Pugin. For the local Catholic congregation, their daily worship will take place in a building warm, appropriately lit and structurally sound – fit for the 21st century community and beyond.”
St Stephen’s Church was designed by Edward Welby Pugin, a member of the Pugin architectural dynasty whose family architectural practice was at the forefront of the Victorian Gothic Revival. Their legacy includes the Houses of Parliament and many famous ecclesiastical buildings: St Stephen’s was the first of his four Scottish churches. The Church will also host the inaugural EW Pugin Lecture later this year to celebrate the restoration of the church building designed by this famous architect. Dr Gerald Hyland of the Pugin Society will deliver the lecture and will highlight the importance of the Gothic revival in EW Pugin’s design.
The project has been designed and managed by James F Stephens and Partners of Glamis with the work being carried out by George Martin Builders Ltd of Dundee.
Doug Reid, Partner and Senior Chartered Conservation Architect with James F Stephens Architects commented:
“funding of straightforward conservation and repair projects such as at St Stephen’s RC Church is always difficult to achieve and the Trust’s award of a Historic Building Grant has been exceptionally important in ensuring that all of the essential and urgent traditional repairs required to return this Category B Listed Building to a structurally sound, wind and watertight condition could be undertaken in a single stage contract. Progress of the roof repair works has been hampered by adverse weather conditions, however, completion is targeted towards the end of April with the church reopening in May”.
Since we started in 1988, Perth and Kinross Heritage Trust has provided over £1.2 million of grant aid to conserve over 500 significant historic buildings across Perth and Kinross. These grants have supported conservation work ranging from traditional sash and case window repairs to much larger projects such as the Royal Scottish Geographical Society’s relocation to the Fair Maids House in Perth. Recently completed projects have included roof repairs to Tibbermore Church, the picturesque Perthshire Outlander filming location, and chimney repairs to a row of mill workers cottages in Auchterarder.