Southwell Minster is in danger of closing unless urgent funding for repairs is secured.
The Minster's Dean, Very Rev Stephen Evans said “decades of underfunding” had left it facing repairs of more than £20 million. In a statement published on the Southwell Minster website, the Dean said the custodians of the building, known as the Chapter “does not have £20 million. Indeed, Chapter’s resources are almost completely exhausted”.
The Church Commissioners for England contribute to the costs of the Cathedral’s clergy and some members of its staff team, but Dean Stephen said it is “almost totally reliant on the income it generates through visitors, worshippers, events, the cathedral shop and restaurant” for repairs and upkeep.
If the Grade I-listed Cathedral is to keep its doors open, the Dean said additional sources of funding have to be found urgently and he’s already in talks with the Church Commissioners for England, the Charity Commission and other agencies.
Last week, the Reform UK MP Robert Jenrick raised the issue in Parliament, in a move welcomed by the Dean who described it as “very timely, not just for Southwell Cathedral but for the dozen or so English cathedrals which also find themselves in a similar position to that of Southwell Minster”.
The present building which was built between 1108 and 1290 replaced an earlier Saxon Minster.
It became the Cathedral Church of the Diocese of Southwell and Nottingham in 1884.