In March 2020, Ss Peter & Paul and St Philomena Catholic Church was awarded a much-coveted ‘Heritage Grant’ of £362,900 by National Lottery, to complete the restoration of the roof and dome. As the country begins its recovery from Covid-19, we have been given permission to start this project, our biggest one yet. The contractors will begin to scaffold the Dome and main sanctuary roofs at the end of June and the regeneration will be seen for miles across Wirral.
Project manager, Anne Archer, said, “Some of the planned project activities to engage with the heritage will be slow to start, especially the planned visits by Care Homes, while the church reopens for individual visits. They will happen and we will become much more dementia friendly, but the bulk of this work will be when the building works have been completed.”
“However, we are still hoping to arrange scaffolding tours for the public as part of the Heritage Open Days in September, and a conference for Heritage professionals. Work on New Brighton’s memories for a very special book will start remotely with some of our partners. Our great team is working on keeping this church open for everyone and would welcome more volunteers.”
Thanks to the help of Wirral Borough Council, The Dome of Home has been able to implement social distancing guidelines and reopen to the public for 2 hours daily. ‘Wirral Together’ Fund awarded £337 for hand sanitisers, notices and PPE for volunteer stewards. At the moment, the church is open for 2 hours every day from 1-3pm. This will change from 24th June to 5-7pm when the building work begins.
Canon Montjean, Rector of the church said, “We are delighted to reopen our church so that local people can pay a visit to our sanctuary, safely. Please check our website for updated times.”
