New Grant Will Save Medieval St Margaret de Westwick Church in Norwich
Historic England has awarded a substantial grant of £500,000 towards the repair of Grade I listed St Margaret de Westwick Church in Norwich.
Closed to worship in 1975, the church now operates as a ‘Church of Art’ with a busy programme of art exhibitions. It is one of 18 medieval churches in the care of the Norwich Historic Churches Trust, who protect, preserve and find new uses for historic churches in the city.
Extensive repair and restoration
Added to Historic England’s Heritage at Risk Register in 2020, the church needs urgent repair to address structural failure and decay, and to bring the building back into good condition.
An extensive restoration programme will include roof, masonry and drainage repairs.
The repair programme follows project development and investigation work completed earlier this year, for which Historic England awarded funding of £45,000.
I’m delighted to see work beginning to repair and restore this important medieval church. St Margaret de Westwick continues to be a focal point for the community and a welcoming space for all to enjoy. This extensive repair programme will ensure that the building can be used and loved into the future.
Norwich's important medieval churches
Dating to the 14th and 15th centuries, St Margaret de Westwick is one of five medieval churches built along St Benedict’s Street and 31 surviving medieval churches within the city walls.
Norwich has the highest number of surviving medieval churches in any city north of the Alps. These churches are collectively considered to be of international importance given the number of churches built in the city, their architectural quality and the number that have survived.
We are so pleased that this exciting project can go ahead to conserve this significant part of the medieval heritage of Norwich. It will be a fantastic project covering many elements of church restoration and craft skills. We couldn’t do this without our supporters especially Historic England and hope to further improve public access in this building after the works are complete.
