HISTORIC houses in the region have been awarded lifetime grants towards essential maintenance.

Newby Hall and Everingham Chapel Hall are set to receive lifeline grants towards essential restoration from the Historic Houses Foundation.

The Historic Houses Foundation is a major beneficiary of the Heritage Stimulus Fund, recently announced by the UK Government and Historic England, which will provide invaluable support for restoration work on some of England’s most important and vulnerable historic buildings.

The Historic Houses Foundation will now be able to set in place a programme of work across England allowing urgent work to be undertaken that would not otherwise have been possible. Over the past 17 years the foundation, as an independent charity, has distributed over £11 million in grant aid to nearly 250 vital restoration projects in England and Wales.

As one of the leading funders of architectural conservation, the Historic Houses Foundation is one of the only bodies able to support buildings in private ownership. The nationally recognised expertise of its eight volunteer Trustees makes it ideally suited to identifying those projects most in need of support and, after careful consideration, 18 nationally important properties across England were selected to benefit from these funds.

The Roman Catholic Chapel of St Mary and St Everilda, beside Everingham Hall, is an extravagant expression of a faith that had been suppressed since the Reformation when it was built in the 1830s. Today its Italian Baroque interiors are suffering from the ingress of water through the roof. A full roof repair will now restore its glory, protecting the marbled Corinthian columns, detailed bas reliefs, statuary and fine English organ.

Newby Hall, home of Richard and Lucinda Compton, is celebrated for its collection of paintings, tapestries and works of art as well as for its gardens.

Restoration will begin this winter on damaged and weathered stonework on the distinctive balustrading along the parapets and on the portico added to this elegant early 18th century house by Yorkshire architect John Carr in 1775.

Work will begin immediately and continue over the winter months before the start of the new tourist season in Spring 2021 and is expected to provide welcome employment to a wide range of traditional craftsmen and building professionals in addition to other local employment opportunities.

Stuart Gill, general manager at Newby Hall, said: “We are so grateful for this capital grant from the Historic Houses Foundation which comes at the end of a challenging season for us at Newby.

"It will allow us to address some fundamental restoration needs that are essential if the house is to remain at the centre of our successful visitor attraction.”

Norman Hudson OBE, chairman of the Historic Houses Foundation said: “Our grants go to historic buildings in all categories of ownership, so range far wider than the National Trust.

"It is good news for historic buildings, for jobs, and for the local community.”