An Ely church will be feeling much warmer this winter after it received a grant to install a new boiler and a heating system.
The Cambridgeshire Historic Churches Trust contributed £2,000 to St Peter’s Church on Broad Street towards the installation, with the church paying the remaining funds to meet the £13,500 total.
“We knew about the Trust because one or two of the vicars we know have been involved because the Trust does an annual sponsored bike ride and our church had been involved in the past,” Councillor Ian Lindsay, chairman of trustees at St Peter’s Church, said.
“We were involved in their charity efforts and we thought about looking at the trust for a grant.”
The new boiler replaces the previous one, which is thought to have been in operation for between 30-40 years.
The replacement has been fitted to the original pipework of the hot water heating system installed underneath the floor and around the walls of the nave when the church was built in 1890.
“We had it serviced and in place for as long as we could, but I think it got to the point of economic repair,” Cllr Lindsay said.
“We’ve had to fund the rest ourselves. I hope we can keep it going until nobody is allowed to use gas anymore. It is a modern condensing boiler, so hopefully we can make some savings as we go along.”
Since reopening in August, St Peter’s Church have been keeping busy with traditional and digital services, and rarely seek financial support from charity work.
Cllr Lindsay said he does not think life will resume as normal anytime soon, but knows how important it is to keep going.
MORE: New church to open serving Ely later this month
“The guidance is to have maximum ventilation and we have to leave the door open until government guidance changes,” he said.
“We are trying to get back to business because, like anyone else, we need the income. There are other things going like livestreams every week.
“We will continue to follow the guidance along with everyone else and hope life starts to get back to normal within nine months to a year.”
St Peter’s Church was built as a mission church by Catharine Maria Sparke as a memorial to her husband, Canon Edward Bowyer Sparke, canon of Ely Cathedral from 1831 to 1879.
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