Powys Church Awarded Lottery Funding

3.00.00pm UTC (GMT +0000) Thu 18th Oct 2007

Local AM for Brecon and Radnorshire, Kirsty Williams, has expressed her delight at news that St Cewydd's Church, Disserth, Powys has been granted a total of £73,600 by the Heritage Lottery Fund.

Kirsty said: "This is wonderful news both for those who have put so much hard work into the application and for the Disserth community as a whole. As well as providing a spiritual focus for the community, it is a facility that will draw visitors and tourists into the area.

"The Church is a Grade I listed building and still retains many of its original architectural features, including 17th Century box pews with the names of local families inscribed on them.

"This grant will enable restoration work on the building which will preserve the Church not just for this generation, but for those to come.

"To date a great deal of work has been undertaken to improve the Churchyard and its circular dry stone wall. With this extra funding much needed restoration work can be carried out on windows along with re-roofing and other internal work."

"In rural areas such as Disserth villages rely upon focal points such as the church for both socialising and providing support within the community. Tourism also plays a vital role in the economy of rural Wales and it is vital that ventures such as the restoration of St Cewydd's Church are given the support they need to keep our rural communities alive and well."

Notes:

The Heritage Lottery Fund has set aside £59,000 for St Cewydd's Church, which will be made available once further work on the application has been completed. A development grant of £14,600 has been awarded to support this further work.