In the last 12 months the Society has paid £37,000 in grants for repairs and conservation work.
Nick Wiggin, grants’ officer, briefed fellow committee members at the March meeting, on progress since February last year.
It was agreed to contribute £2,000 to St Andrew, Great Ryburgh, near Fakenham, towards the cost of repointing the north and west elevations of the nave, and repairs to a nave corner. The total cost will be about £20,000.
As work on repairs at St Michael, Geldeston, and St Mary the Virgin, Tasburgh, has started, two grants of £5,000 have been paid.
Mr Wiggin said that letters of thanks had been received from four churches, all dedicated to St Mary, for grants of a total of £10,000 made last December to Wortham, Beachamwell, Snailwell and Bartlow.
Stuart Bowell, chairman, said that Forncett St Peter had thanked the Society for its support on its Facebook page. A £3,000 grant had been made by the Society towards the cost of preparing a Heritage Lottery Fund application.
As confirmed, Forncett has been awarded £33,000 by the HLF for the development phase. It will submit a further request to fund the delivery phase by the late autumn – as reported in the March edition of The Round Tower.
Mr Wiggin said that the Society has awarded a further £37,000 in grants over the past six years, which has not yet been spent. A number of churches needed to raise further funds to fund repair and conservation work.