Rural churches: the wider pictureTrevor Cooper

Rural churches: the wider picture

Slides for conference at York, 10 November 2005Shaping the future of rural churches: how do we save our church buildings?

NOTE: at the end of the pack are a few additional slides

Copyright: You may use the information on the slides without asking permission,but please acknowledge the source. Please do not use the actual slides orthe images on them without asking me first.

Health warning: in some cases, the data is very new and has not been checked.It would therefore be wise to check with me before using any data in this pack. I will not be held responsible for the consequences of any errors in any of the data.

Trevor Cooperadmin@ecclsoc.org

William Cobbett1763 – 1835

Author Rural Rides, etc

Rural churches – the wider picture

Kesgrave, SuffolkSimon Knott, www.suffolkchurches.co.uk/

Overview – all churches• measuring support• listed churches• redundancy

Rural churches• net rural immigration• support• state of buildings• use

So what?

Population per Anglicanchurch building, 2003

up to 2000

2001 - 3000

3001 to 4000

4001 to 6000

Source:Statistics (CofE) 2003/4

over 6000

Population and number of churches by rural environment (populn 2001 / churches 2004)

Source: State of Countryside 2005;CofE, Archbishops' Council

AreaPopul'n (million) %

Churches %

People per church

Less Village / hamlet / isolated dwelling4.7 10.0 6,900 43 700sparse Town and fringe 4.2 9.0 1,700 10 2,500

Urban >10K 39.5 80.0 6,400 40 6,200

Sparse Village / hamlet / isolated dwelling0.5 0.8 970 6 500Town and Fringe 0.2 0.4 110 1 2,000Urban >10K 0.1 0.2 20 1 4,200

England* 49.1 100 16,020 100Excluding Channel Islands and Sodor & Man, c. 176 churches

Sparsity (by census output area)

Source: State of Countryside 2005;

no data for Liverpool, Wakefield, Carlisle, Sodor and Man

less than 30%

30% – 49%

50% - 59%

60% - 69%

Proportion of churches whichare Grade I or II* listed

Source: How do we keep our parish churches?

70% - 79%

80% and over

?

n/a

?

?

Source: see previous slides

people per church % listed

?

n/a

?

?

63

66

73

75

76

91

161

0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180

Attendance onSunday

Easter daycommunicants

Attendance duringweek

Christmas day / evecommunicants

Electoral roll (adults)*

Easter dayattendance

Christmas day / eveattendance

Some measures of support for CofE churches, 2003All ages,* per church building, total in brackets

Source: Church Statistics, 2003/4

except electoral roll; communicants will tend to be teenagers or older

(2.6m)(1.5m)

(1.2m)

(1.2m)

(1.2m)

(1.1m)

(1.0m)

63

66

73

75

76

91

161

0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180

Attendance onSunday

Easter daycommunicants

Attendance duringweek

Christmas day / evecommunicants

Electoral roll (adults)*

Easter dayattendance

Christmas day / eveattendance

Some measures of support for CofE churches, 2003All ages,* per church building, total for England in brackets

Source: Church Statistics, 2003/4

except electoral roll; communicants will tend to be teenagers or older

(2.6m)(1.5m)

(1.2m)

(1.2m)

(1.2m)

(1.1m)

(1.0m) (?? 2.0m)

allow for irregular

attendance

Number of parishes with given electoral rollless-sparse communities (2003)

Source: CofE, Archbishops’ Council

Electoral roll

Village, hamlet and isolated

dwellingTown and

fringe

1 - 10 280 3011 - 20 920 8021-30 970 10031-50 1430 21051-100 1380 410more than 100 830 520

Total no. of parishes

5810 1360

less than 5%

5% – 9%

10% - 14%

15% upwards

Proportion of churchesmade redundant,1970 - 2002

Source: Church Commissioners

Minimum number of regular attenders for viable church, 1988Interviews with 89 rural clergy

Source: Rural Church Project: The Rural Church: Staff and Buildings

Minimum number of attenders

Number %

5 or less 7 86 - 10 9 1011 - 20 7 8more than 20 9 10Impossible to say 57 64

Total clergy responding 89 100%

Clergy giving this answer

Rural churches – the wider picture

Hempnall, NorfolkSimon Knott, www.norfolkchurches.co.uk/

Overview – all churches• measuring support• listed churches• redundancy

Rural churches• net rural immigration• support• state of buildings• use

So what?

negative

6 – 10%

11 – 15%

Source:Statistics (CofE) 2003/4 and 1983

0 – 5%

15 – 20%

above 20%

?

Average overEngland: 6%

Population % change,1981 – 2001

Proportion of secondresidences / holiday homes

Source: State of Countryside 2005;

‘Usual Sunday attendance’, rural and urban dioceses

Source: Church Statistics, and CofE Yearbook, various years

rural = Exeter, Gloucs, Hereford, Lincoln, Norwich, Peterborough, Salisbury, St Edmundsbury & Ipswichurban = Birmingham, Liverpool, London, Manchester, Sheffield, Southwark, Wakefield

2219 19 18

17 15 14

51

39 3735

3128

24

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005

Su

nd

ay

att

en

da

nc

e p

er

10

00

po

pu

ln

Urban dioceses Rural dioceses

Changes in level of support, average of nine rural dioceses

dioceses = Carlisle, Gloucester, Hereford, Lincoln, Norwich, St E & I, Salisbury, TruroSource: Lankshear, 2004, in Rural Theology, Volume 2, Part 2 (Issue 63)

population (thousands)

464491

546581

621

0

100

200

300

400

500

600

700

1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s

easter day communicants (thousands)

35 36

30 31

26

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s

total on electoral rolls (thousands)

5651

41

35

29

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s

confirmation candidates

26472519

1686

1298

788

0

500

1000

1500

2000

2500

3000

1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s

Distribution of clergy in the diocese of Hereford, 1956

Source: The People, the Land, the Church, 1986

Distribution of clergy in the diocese of Hereford, 1956 & 1986

Source: The People, the Land, the Church, 1986

144 clergy

0 1 2 3 4 5

5 years backlog

3 years backlog

1 years backlog

5 years’ worthof newly notified repairs

years

backlog ofrepairs

questionnaire arrives randomly in the cycle, different times for different churches

How many years’ outstanding repairs would we expect?

repairsstart!

Backlog of repairs, 2003

• Average across dioceses is 4 years– Only ten more than 5 years (see cautionary note) – Only one more than 7 years (see cautionary note)

• No systematic difference between rural andurban dioceses

• BUT – do we know what the figures mean?• BUT – these are averages – we don’t know about the best and

worst individual churches

CAUTION – don’t try this at home– because annual repair spend is highly variable, and to obtain a

robust figure you will need more years’ data than have been published

Source: Church Statistics 2003/4 and Archbishops' Council

Breakdown of NUMBER outstanding repairs (2003):less-sparse villages, hamlets and isolated dwellings

Source: CofE Archbishops' Council

bands in £246

908

768

748

759

283

95

74

21

6

1

0 200 400 600 800 1000

0.1k - 1k

1k - 5k

5k - 10k

10k - 20k

20k - 50k

50k - 100k

100k -150k

150k - 250k

250k - 500k

500k - 1m

more than 1m

the information on this graph is new,and needs checking

NB: the number of zero-repair parishes is not shown

0.2

2.9

6.0

11.2

25.1

20.9

12.1

14.9

7.7

4.6

1.5

0 5 10 15 20 25 30

0 - 1k

1k - 5k

5k - 10k

10k - 20k

20k - 50k

50k - 100k

100k -150k

150k - 250k

250k - 500k

500k - 1m

more than 1m

Breakdown of COST outstanding repairs, £m (2003):less-sparse villages, hamlets and isolated dwellings

Source: CofE Archbishops' Council

£mbands in £

3400 parishes

500 parishes

the information on this graph is new,and needs checking

NB: the number of zero-repair parishes is not shown

0.2

2.9

6.0

11.2

25.1

20.9

12.1

14.9

7.7

4.6

1.5

0.1

1.6

3.1

7.3

25.7

31.3

17.5

22.5

31.7

19.6

46.1

0.0 10.0 20.0 30.0 40.0 50.0

0.1k - 1k

1k - 5k

5k - 10k

10k - 20k

20k - 50k

50k - 100k

100k -150k

150k - 250k

250k - 500k

500k - 1m

more than 1m

Less sparse Village, hamlet and isolated dwelling Less sparse Urban > 10k

Breakdown of outstanding repairs, £m (2003):less-sparse – villages etc, and urban

Source: CofE Archbishops' Council

£m

bands in £

the information on this graph is new,and needs checking

NB: the number of zero-repair parishes is not shown

Herefordshire: lockedand open churches,2001 - 2source: www.digiatlas.net/

Percentofchurchesopen,bycounty

County OpenLocked, key info

Special times Locked

Other uses

Gloucs Cotswolds 89 4 1 5 1Sussex 81 11 0 7Isle of Man 78 0 4 18Rutland 63 29 0 8Herefordshire 73 8 0 16 3Dorset 73 5 1 19 2Norfolk 62 22 3 14 1Cambridgeshire 59 20 1 20Oxfordshire 61 11 3 25Suffolk 54 28 0 18Gloucs V & F 57 12 2 28 0Shropshire 53 15 1 31Worcestershire 52 13 2 33Berkshire 51 6 1 41Northamptonshire 36 35 2 27Huntingdonshire 38 28 3 29 2Warwickshire 44 5 2 49Hertfordshire 40 11 2 47Bedfordshire 28 31 5 36Nottinghamshire 24 26 4 46Average 56 16 2 26 0.4

source: www.digiatlas.net/

Constraints mentioned holding back wider use of churchbuilding (2003):Rural churches in diocese of Worcester: 83 PCCs

Source: Vibrant Church, Glocs

Constraints noted PCC Response (% mentioning)

Fixed pews 45%Lack of toilets 42%Poor / no heating 19%Layout / lack of space 19%No running water 17%

Lack of kitchen facilities 12%Lack of facilities 10%Listed building / old building 10%Access 10%Parking 8%

Location 7%Alternative space 7%Cost 6%Sanctity of building 5%

Rural churches – the wider picture

Chippenham, CambridgeshireBen Colburn, Mark Ynys-Mon www.druidic.org/camchurch

Overview – all churches• measuring support• listed churches• redundancy

Rural churches• net rural immigration• support• state of buildings• use

So what?

Highnam, Gloscopyright Dr Digi

the end

additional slides

Grade I4,200

Grade II*4,200

Grade II3,800

unlisted4,000

335370

964

not to scale

12,400

= 16,200

8,200F/T

clergy

redundant

CCTX

other use

10,600readers

2,400NSM/OLM

retired ???

43

diocpriests,

etc

beneficeschurches

in use

redundantchurches, (end 2004)

8135

parishes

supporters

Church of England: some key numbers

about 25per year

Source: Church Statistics, 2003/4;Church Commissioners RCC 2004

£50m

£36m

found by churches

grants

EH/HLF £21m

VAT £6m

Landfill £2mtrusts,etc £7m

Major sources of grants etc, England & Wales (2002)

Some figures estimated, andto be treated with caution

Source: How do we keep our parish churches?

Mean Household

Income£k

Median Household

Income£k

Less Hamlet and isolated dwellings 36.8 32.1sparse Village 34.8 30.5

Town and fringe 30.6 27.2Urban >10K 29.2 25.9

Sparse Hamlet and isolated dwellings 29.0 25.3Village 28.0 24.7Town and fringe 24.4 21.9Urban >10K 23.4 21.1

All England 29.9 24.8

Area classification

Average household incomes (2004)

Source: State of Countryside 2005;

London 90Sheffield 86Southwark 78Portsmouth 41Manchester 40Worcester 40Birmingham 37Liverpool 36York 36Chester 35Winchester 35Canterbury 34Guildford 33St Albans 32

Wakefield 31Chelmsford 30Bristol 29Ely 28Ripon 28Chichester 28Coventry 28Sodor & Man 27Truro 26Newcastle 25St Edms & Ipswich25Norwich 25Gloucester 21Oxford 21

Carlisle 21Derby 20Leicester 19Hereford 19Bath & Wells 18Peterborough 16Durham 16Blackburn 15Southwell 14Rochester 13Lincoln 12Exeter 12Bradford 10Salisbury 10Lichfield 4

Outstanding repairs per church building, by diocese, 2003

£’000

Source: Church Statistics, 2003/4

Unrestricted ordinary income (2001), showing number of parishes in each income band

Source: How do we keep our parish churches?

Unrestricted ordinary income %

number of parishes (approx)

£0 - £1k 1 130£1k - £2k 2 260£2k - £5k 9 1150£5k - £10k 17 2180£10k - £20k 22 2820£20k - £30k 13 1670over £30k 37 474037Total 100% 12,951