£1m grant for region's churches

More than £1m has been awarded to renovate 12 grade II-listed churches across the West Midlands.

The cash is being handed out as part of a national £7m handout from the Repair Grants for Places of Worship scheme.

The English Heritage project has so far given £52.5m to more than 600 buildings in need of renovation across the UK.

Churches in Birmingham and the Black Country, Warwickshire, Staffordshire, Herefordshire and Worcestershire are to benefit from the latest award.

One of the most architecturally unusual is the Church of Our Lady and St John the Baptist in Ashley, Staffordshire.

'Greatly loved'

It is a striking Roman Catholic building in the Moorish Gothic style dating from 1823.

A grant of £103,000 will be spent on re-roofing and re-rendering the church.

Other churches to benefit from grants include St George's Church, Worcester, a redbrick church designed by Sir Aston Webb and built in 1895, and the Assemblies of the First Born Church in Lozells, Birmingham.

In Warwickshire, the Holy Trinity at Hartshill is to receive money for repairs, as is St James's Church in Canon Frome, Herefordshire.

Chris Smith from English Heritage West Midlands said: "All these places of worship are greatly loved by their congregations who battle against the odds to preserve them.

"We want these grants to give them the boost needed to carry out vital repair work and so secure an active future for these buildings which are part of our rich and diverse heritage."