THE Church of England has announced it has no plans to sell Auckland Castle – but its future as the home of the Bishop of Durham remains uncertain.

Andrew Brown, secretary to the Church Commissioners, said yesterday that the historic Bishop Auckland building will not be sold, but plans to sell the £15m Zurbaran paintings that hang there remain unchanged.

He revealed that the suitability of Auckland Castle as the Bishop of Durham’s home was under review, but said: “How it is going to be used, I do not know yet, but what I do know is that it is not about to be sold. We have no plans to sell it whatsoever.”

Speaking on BBC1’s Inside Out programme last night, Mr Brown said: “The paintings are our assets. We know they are worth £15m and if we reinvest that money we can afford to support an additional ten priests in the poorer areas of England.

“That is the question that the Church Commissioners have really been grappling with.

“It is our responsibility to increase the amount of support that we can make available to the Church of England at grassroots level to help fund parish ministry to be there when people in the congregation need them.”

A working group led by Sir Paul Nicholson, the Lord Lieutenant of County Durham, which is campaigning to keep the paintings at Auckland Castle, is seeking ways of finding alternatives to the sale.

Dr Bob McManners, a member of the group, said: “If that means that the castle is not going to be sold, then that is a positive thing for Bishop Auckland.

“The town derives its existence and name from the fact that the Bishop has had his home here for the best part of 1,000 years.”

He said the heritage and religious symbolism associated with the Zurbaran paintings was worth far more than their monetary value and encouraged people to continue writing letters of objection to the Church Commissioners about the sale.

He said: “Signing petitions is fine, but writing individual letters to the commissioners carries much more weight.”

* The Zurbaran Paintings, BBC One (North-East and Cumbria), is available on BBC iPlayer.