ELY Cathedral is to benefit from a £16,000 cash boost for urgently-needed repairs. English Heritage and the Wolfson Foundation have given the Ely landmark the grant to finish the restoration of the stonework and glazing at the east end of the cathedral,

ELY Cathedral is to benefit from a £16,000 cash boost for urgently-needed repairs.

English Heritage and the Wolfson Foundation have given the Ely landmark the grant to finish the restoration of the stonework and glazing at the east end of the cathedral, pictured.

The restoration has been taking place over the past four years, with the cost totalling about £250,000, to clean the crumbling and blackened stones and repair the windows.

A spokesman for the cathedral said: "The east end is a focal part of the cathedral, as people make use of the Sacrist Gate and East Lawn as a cut through and during the summer the East Lawn is very popular place for tourists and families to sit on the grass with the cathedral as a magnificent backdrop."

The Dean of Ely Cathedral, The Very Revd Dr Michael Chandler, said he could not emphasise enough the importance of this level of funding for the cathedral. "Cathedrals are inherently very expensive to repair and maintain as it is necessary to use the very best traditional craftsman and materials.

"We are extremely grateful to English Heritage and the Wolfson Foundation for the grant; one of my duties as Dean of this cathedral is to ensure it is properly maintained and kept structurally sound so future generations can enjoy this magnificent building which has stood as a place of music and worship for hundreds of years."

Cathedrals need constant specialised repair and maintenance. 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. Since then, the scheme has contributed a grand total of £43.4 million towards works to overcome the backlog.

The Wolfson Foundation is a grant-making charity.