AN historic church placed on the heritage ‘at-risk’ register has been awarded a £250,000 lottery grant for repairs.

The Anglican Holy Trinity Church, in Woodlands Road, Darlington, recently celebrated its 175th anniversary, but dry rot in the roof has left it in danger of serious damage.

The Grade 2* church is classed as being in a ‘very bad’ condition by the English Heritage Place of Worship At-Risk register.

But a grant of £250,000 from the Heritage Lottery Fund will now pay for much-needed repairs to the wooden structure holding up the roof, which is part of the original structure of the building.

The Venerable Nick Barker, Priest in Charge, said: “This award of the grant is exciting news. Holy Trinity is important to the community of Darlington and the work is essential.

“This project will stabilise the building, protect its heritage and allow us to develop facilities to enable it to be more open and available to a wider cross section of the community.

“In addition to the repairs, the project will add toilets and a servery to widen public use and engagement with the community.

“The project will enable more school visits, concerts, open days and community events to happen and new interpretative material will heighten people's awareness of the value of the building.

“This is a growing church despite its current state of repair. At our Christmas Christingle service we had 28 children in the nativity and the church was packed with 385 adults and children.”