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The roof of St Mary the Virgin, Castle Eaton was last restored by the Victorian architect Butterfield around 1862. One hundred years later in 1962 the chancel roof was stripped and all the slates re-laid on pressure treated battons over new felt.

Now in 2010 the roof is in dire need of a further restoration at a cost that far exceeds that of 1862! In the spring of 2009 the Parochial Church Council applied to English Heritage and the Heritage Lottery Fund for a grant and was delighted to be accepted and offered a grant of £12,000 towards the cost of development work and a further ‘in principle’ offer of £68,000 towards the cost of the actual work.

The development stage has begun and we are about to open up a section of the roof to determine the full extent of work required. Once this is done the specification can be drawn up and put out to tender. Then we will know just how much money we need to raise.
We have applied to several other grant funding organisations with some success and are still busy fund raising with activities in the village.

Of course we are extremely grateful for the local response to these activities not only do they raise a considerable amount of money but are enjoyable and bring the village together: it also proves when applying to larger organisations that we are doing everything we can to help ourselves.

We will endeavour to keep you all informed as the work takes place over the next few months.