Rural churches: the wider picture Trevor Cooper

Rural churches: the wider picture Slides for conference at York, 10 November 2005 Shaping the future of rural churches: how do we save our church buildings? NOTE: at the end of the pack are a few additional slides Copyright: You may use the information on the slides without asking permission, but please acknowledge the source. Please do not use the actual slides or the images on them without asking me first. Health warning: in some cases, the data is very new and has not been checked. It would therefore be wise to check with me before using any data in this pack. I will not be held responsible for the consequences of any errors in any of the data. Trevor Cooper

William Cobbett 1763 – 1835 Author Rural Rides, etc

Rural churches – the wider picture Kesgrave, Suffolk Simon Knott, Overview – all churches measuring support listed churches redundancy Rural churches net rural immigration support state of buildings use So what?

Population per Anglican church building, 2003 up to to to 6000 Source:Statistics (CofE) 2003/4 over 6000

Population and number of churches by rural environment (populn 2001 / churches 2004) Source: State of Countryside 2005; CofE, Archbishops' Council

Sparsity (by census output area) Source: State of Countryside 2005;

no data for Liverpool, Wakefield, Carlisle, Sodor and Man less than 30% 30% – 49% 50% - 59% 60% - 69% Proportion of churches which are Grade I or II* listed Source: How do we keep our parish churches? 70% - 79% 80% and over ? n/a ? ?

Source: see previous slides people per church% listed ? n/a ? ?

Some measures of support for CofE churches, 2003 All ages,* per church building, total in brackets Source: Church Statistics, 2003/4 except electoral roll; communicants will tend to be teenagers or older (2.6m) (1.5m) (1.2m) (1.1m) (1.0m)

Some measures of support for CofE churches, 2003 All ages,* per church building, total for England in brackets Source: Church Statistics, 2003/4 except electoral roll; communicants will tend to be teenagers or older (2.6m) (1.5m) (1.2m) (1.1m) (1.0m) (?? 2.0m) allow for irregular attendance

Number of parishes with given electoral roll less-sparse communities (2003) Source: CofE, Archbishops’ Council

less than 5% 5% – 9% 10% - 14% 15% upwards Proportion of churches made redundant, Source: Church Commissioners

Minimum number of regular attenders for viable church, 1988 Interviews with 89 rural clergy Source: Rural Church Project: The Rural Church: Staff and Buildings

Rural churches – the wider picture Hempnall, Norfolk Simon Knott, Overview – all churches measuring support listed churches redundancy Rural churches net rural immigration support state of buildings use So what?

negative 6 – 10% 11 – 15% Source:Statistics (CofE) 2003/4 and – 5% 15 – 20% above 20% ? Average over England: 6% Population % change, 1981 – 2001

Proportion of second residences / holiday homes Source: State of Countryside 2005;

‘Usual Sunday attendance’, rural and urban dioceses Source: Church Statistics, and CofE Yearbook, various years rural = Exeter, Gloucs, Hereford, Lincoln, Norwich, Peterborough, Salisbury, St Edmundsbury & Ipswich urban = Birmingham, Liverpool, London, Manchester, Sheffield, Southwark, Wakefield

Changes in level of support, average of nine rural dioceses dioceses = Carlisle, Gloucester, Hereford, Lincoln, Norwich, St E & I, Salisbury, Truro Source: Lankshear, 2004, in Rural Theology, Volume 2, Part 2 (Issue 63)

Distribution of clergy in the diocese of Hereford, 1956 Source: The People, the Land, the Church, 1986

Distribution of clergy in the diocese of Hereford, 1956 & 1986 Source: The People, the Land, the Church, clergy

years backlog 3 years backlog 1 years backlog 5 years’ worth of newly notified repairs years backlog of repairs questionnaire arrives randomly in the cycle, different times for different churches How many years’ outstanding repairs would we expect? repairs start!

Backlog of repairs, 2003 Average across dioceses is 4 years –Only ten more than 5 years (see cautionary note) –Only one more than 7 years (see cautionary note) No systematic difference between rural and urban dioceses BUT – do we know what the figures mean? BUT – these are averages – we don’t know about the best and worst individual churches CAUTION – don’t try this at home –because annual repair spend is highly variable, and to obtain a robust figure you will need more years’ data than have been published Source: Church Statistics 2003/4 and Archbishops' Council

Breakdown of NUMBER outstanding repairs (2003): less-sparse villages, hamlets and isolated dwellings Source: CofE Archbishops' Council bands in £ the information on this graph is new, and needs checking NB: the number of zero-repair parishes is not shown

Breakdown of COST outstanding repairs, £m (2003): less-sparse villages, hamlets and isolated dwellings Source: CofE Archbishops' Council £m bands in £ 3400 parishes 500 parishes the information on this graph is new, and needs checking NB: the number of zero-repair parishes is not shown

Breakdown of outstanding repairs, £m (2003): less-sparse – villages etc, and urban Source: CofE Archbishops' Council £m bands in £ the information on this graph is new, and needs checking NB: the number of zero-repair parishes is not shown

Herefordshire: locked and open churches, source:

Percent of churches open, by county source:

Constraints mentioned holding back wider use of church building (2003): Rural churches in diocese of Worcester: 83 PCCs Source: Vibrant Church, Glocs

Rural churches – the wider picture Chippenham, Cambridgeshire Ben Colburn, Mark Ynys-Mon Overview – all churches measuring support listed churches redundancy Rural churches net rural immigration support state of buildings use So what?

Highnam, Glos copyright Dr Digi the end

additional slides

Grade I 4,200 Grade II* 4,200 Grade II 3,800 unlisted 4, not to scale 12,400 = 16,200 8,200 F/T clergy redundant CCT X other use 10,600 readers 2,400 NSM/OLM retired ??? 43 dioc priests, etc benefices churches in use redundant churches, (end 2004) 8135 parishes supporters Church of England: some key numbers about 25 per year Source: Church Statistics, 2003/4; Church Commissioners RCC 2004

£50m £36m found by churches grants EH/HLF £21m VAT £6m Landfill £2m trusts, etc £7m Major sources of grants etc, England & Wales (2002) Some figures estimated, and to be treated with caution Source: How do we keep our parish churches?

Average household incomes (2004) Source: State of Countryside 2005;

Outstanding repairs per church building, by diocese, 2003 £’000 Source: Church Statistics, 2003/4

Unrestricted ordinary income (2001), showing number of parishes in each income band Source: How do we keep our parish churches?