£250,000 funding for St Mary's Church, Lanark

A QUARTER of a million pound birthday present is on its way to Lanark's St Mary's Church at the beginning of its centenary year.

The Roman Catholic church, one of Lanark's largest and most impressive buildings, is in need of a major refurbishment.

Parishioners had already started a huge fundraising effort to raise the money needed as a very fitting way of celebrating the 100th anniversary of the opening of the building in 1910.

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A huge boost to their efforts has come by way of two large grants, 167,500 coming from the government's Historic Scotland agency and a further 82,500 from the Heritage Lottery Fund.

The grants were announced as part of a New Year package of help for five historic churches and one cathedral in Scotland, all of them, including St Mary's, being described as being "of important architectural merit and in need of attention."

While enormously grateful for what was the biggest of all the grants handed out, Father Joseph Brannigan pointed out that St Mary's and associated buildings such as the Priest House and Clubrooms would need a total of 2 million worth of work done to them in the next few years.

He said: "The grants come under an emergency fabric repairs fund, usually dedicated to church roofs; in St Mary's case part of it will, indeed, be used on a section of roof but there is a lot of stonework that needs attention.

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"While we've a long way to go with raising all the money we need, this is a great help and much appreciated."

The main church building is now closed and services are being held in the clubrooms until May while some of the works get underway; much of the stonework grouting replacement the grants will cover will have to wait for better weather to proceed.

For more information on this story, pick up a copy of this week's Lanark Gazette which is in the shops now.