Newcastle's St Nicholas Church of England Cathedral will have a share in more than £2m of grant funding for 28 cathedrals across the country in a joint scheme by English Heritage and the Wolfson Foundation, it was announced today.

St Nicholas' will get £29,000 towards the repair and conservation of two of its magnificent stained glass windows.

One window, by celebrated Tyneside stained glass artist William Wailes on the south wall of the Cathedral, was erected in the 1850s by successful Victorian merchant James Dale in memory of his four children. The other is in the south-west porch, again by William Wailes, erected in 1842 by Wailes' own workmen in memory of one of their colleagues. Both windows need urgent attention to their leading and sections of glass if they are to survive.

The Dean of St Nicholas' Cathedral, the Very Revd Chris Dalliston said: "We are really delighted that English Heritage is supporting this significant conservation project.

"St Nicholas Cathedral boasts a truly remarkable collection of 19th and 20th Century stained glass, which not only tells the stories of the Churches' faith and the northern saints but also of the city of Newcastle itself.


"Protecting this priceless heritage and enabling it to be understood, appreciated and enjoyed both today and into the future is a really important piece of work."

Carol Pyrah, English Heritage's North East Planning and Development Director said:"Cathedrals are some of our most important and beautiful historic buildings. A huge amount of work has to go into securing their future and maintaining them as living, worshipping communities for the future. I am delighted that the grants announced today will go some way to helping the custodians of these wonderful places in their task of caring for these cathedrals."

Commenting on the grants, Paul Ramsbottom, Executive Secretary of the Wolfson Foundation, remarked: "These buildings are some of the most wonderful in the country, and demonstrate the power of our heritage to inspire successive generations. Cathedrals sit at the heart of communities: history, culture and religion set in stone.

"The Wolfson Foundation is pleased to fund alongside English Heritage, and we have again benefited greatly from their wise advice. It is our hope that the cathedral programme will help to preserve these remarkable buildings for future generations."

Like all large historic buildings, cathedrals need constant, careful repair and maintenance and collectively they spend £11m on carrying out this work each year. The English Heritage Cathedral Grants scheme has been running since 1991 when a survey showed that the country's 61 cathedrals were facing a huge backlog of major repairs that they could not fund alone. The sums awarded to date add up to nearly £49.5m.

The focus of the English Heritage Grant Scheme is on necessary major structural repairs to maintain that good condition, although other work such as archaeological and metric surveys, access audits, conservation plans and the installation of fire detection systems is also eligible.

(GK/JM)