Church Fabrics
The parish churches of this country are an incomparable heritage, many of them more interesting historically and architecturally than many cathedrals. Their preservation is therefore a matter of supreme importance, and it has become of immediate urgency because the churches are getting older all the time, because repairs have fallen badly behind owing to the difficulty of securing licences during and since the war and because generous donors towards the expense of repairs in the past find themselves compelled by the incidence of taxation to curb their liberality. The Church Assembly Commission which has been considering the question of preser- vation, under the chairmanship of Mr. Ivor Bulmer-Thomas, for just under a year has this week produced an exceedingly practical report. A good deal, it points out, could be done in the way of prevention if regular inspection were carried out, in the first instance, by the parochial council, if only to detect such incipient causes of decay as choked gutters, and secondly at five-year periods by qualified ecclesiastical archi- tects. Meanwhile there is a great deal of leeway to make up. It is estimated that it will cost some £4,000,000, -spread over ten years, to supplement parochial efforts. Thereafter about £700,000 a year should suffice, not an excessive sum for the 15,779 churches of the country. Methods are suggested by which the Church could raise the four millions itself without appealing for Government grants, which it is certainly desir- able to dispense with if possible. In various minor points the commission has shown itself exceedingly sensible, and its report is a good deal more practically useful than such documents often are.
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