English Heritage and the Heritage Lottery Fund have published details of 165 ecclesiastical buildings that will benefit from £17.5million grants being made available for the repair of parish churches and other places of worship

At the same time they have announced that the current Repair Grants for Places of Worship scheme, due to end this year, is to be extended to 2007.

The scheme was launched in 2002, congtinuing a partnership between English Heritage and the Heritage Lottery Fund that was established in 1996.

The latest announcement brings the total awarded in the past three years to nearly £52.5million. It has been distributed to more than 600 buildings. The vast majority of grants go to parish churches, but the scheme has also helped non-Anglican places of worship such as Brighton Synagogue, Sheffield Buddhist Centre and the World Mission Korean Presbyterian Church in Weybridge.

Among the places of worship offered grants is St Barnabas in Pimlico, London, where a Dangerous Structure Notice was served by the local authority following storm damage to the church spire in January 2004.

The church plays an important role in the community and serves two congregations, the Anglican parish and the Melkite Greek Catholic community in London. St Barnabas has been offered £25,000 to develop proposals with up to £601,000 available for the full repair programme.

All Saints in Beckingham, Lincolnshire, a fine medieval church in a particularly poor condition, receives £149,000.

The church, which forms the centre of a small rural community and contains high quality work in coursed rubble and ashlar stonework dating from the 12th century, has been closed for some time and was at serious risk of redundancy. The first stage of repair will be to the main roof coverings of the nave and north aisle.

Holy Trinity, one of the major landmarks of Stratford-upon-Avon and the burial place of William Shakespeare, has been offered an initial £16,000 to develop proposals with up to £34,000 available for a major repair project.

Some serious structural problems have been found at the church and the first priority is the celebrated tower and spire, where cracks have appeared and the stonework is clearly decaying. The stage-one offer will enable a steeplejack to carry out further investigations.

This year the group of non-Anglican and non-Christian places of worship to benefit from a grant includes Princes Road Synagogue in Liverpool. Built in 1874 it has a fine painted and gilded interior. It is offered £84,000 for re-slating of the roof and eradication of dry rot.

It is hoped that more applications will be received from other denominations and faiths in the future.

The publication of the church grants followed the announcement that the 15th round of allocations since English Heritage\'s Cathedral Grants scheme was launched in 1991 would make £1million available to cathedrals.

Since 1991 the scheme has contributed £40.8million towards the repair of some of England\'s greatest buildings, ensuring that none of the country\'s cathedrals are now at risk.

The emphasis this year is on grants for smaller or cyclical repairs such as re-leading windows and masonry conservation, which are essential to the long-term maintenance of the buildings. Grants have also been offered for improvements to access, lighting and fire detection systems.

The largest five grant offers of between £50,000 and £100,000 go to the cathedrals of Coventry, Hereford, Lincoln, Ripon and Salisbury.