TWO medieval churches can look forward to long and dry futures after receiving grants in excess of £78,000 for urgent roof repairs.

St Mary Magdalene Church in Trimdon Village and St Mary’s Church in Barnard Castle are among those to benefit from the Government’s Listed Places of Worship: Roof Repair Fund, receiving £46,600 and £31,600 respectively.

Reverend Michael Thompson, of the Parish of the Upper Skerne in Trimdon, said the church would not have been able to carry out vital repairs without the grant.

He said: “A lot of hard work went into the application by church members and the wider community and everyone is delighted.

“The roof needs an awful lot of work doing to it to stop water running into the timbers.

“When medieval churches were built, 500 to 1,000 years ago, no-one dreamed they would still be standing today.

“St Mary Magdalene is a beautiful church but if you look closely you can see work needs doing.

“This is the first phase in a series of repairs to preserve it for future generations.”

Over in Barnard Castle, the mood was equally jubilant.

In July 2012, flash flooding overwhelmed the drainage channel along the north side of St Mary’s Church, causing water to seep through the mortar on the walls.

When the flooding subsided, dry rot set in and the lower part of the interior walls was covered in fungus.

Although the damage has been repaired, at a cost of £15,000, further work is needed to protect the church from future floods.

Reverend Alec Harding said: “There is still a problem with drainage at the north side of the building and part of the funding will be used to improve drainage channels and soak-aways.

“Parts of the roof also need patching up so it will help pay for that too.

“We are absolutely delighted and slightly surprised to receive the grant as we left it quite late to apply.

“I would like to thank Robert and Frances Stenlake who worked so hard to pull together the application on our behalf.”

In the North-East, 14 churches received a total of £546,000 through the Roof Repair Fund, which aims to keep churches weather-tight, safe and open to use.

It is part of a wider funding package of £30 million to 502 historic places of worship across the UK announced this week.

A new £25 million fund, administered by the National Heritage Memorial Fund on behalf of the Department for Culture Media and Sport, will reopen to new applications later this year.