Elland church celebrates after receiving £7000 from Trust

The Grade I listed church, which featured in the last series of Last Tango in Halifax, has original stones that date back to 1170.

Most of the present church dates from the 13th and 14th centuries, and features 15th century stained glass depicting scenes from the life of St Mary.

St Mary’s plays an important role in the local community, holding regular coffee morning, social events and a Christmas and summer fayre.

They have been working tirelessly to raise enough funds to carry out the repair works, applying to a number of other Trusts, and hope to achieve their target soon.

The funding was granted at the YHCT’s recent Grants’ Committee, which saw over £60,000 allocated to fund vital repairs to the roofs, windows and ancient stonework of fifteen of the region’s most vulnerable places of worship.

Canon David Burrows, Rector of Elland said: “St Mary’s is a real hub of community life and we are delighted to have received this funding. Once the repair works have been undertaken and when we are able to do so, we look forward to re-opening and continuing to offer a range of activities to the local community.

“During the virus lockdown, we are live streaming the Holy Eucharist from the Rectory on our Facebook page, ‘St Mary’s & All Saints Elland’ on Sundays at 9.30am and Wednesdays at 9.30am (BCP)”.

Tom Ramsden, Chairman of the Yorkshire Historic Churches Trust, said “We have tough decisions to make as we always receive requests for more funding than we can award, but each of the churches we fund have shown how important they are in the local community, and it is vital that these much loved places of worship are preserved so they remain standing for centuries to come.

“The YHCT relies on the generosity of friends and donors to help fund repairs which will ensure the county’s much loved places of worship remain standing from many years to come”.