Who cares for places of worship?

Under the rather ponderous headline ‘Revealing Misunderstandings about Stewardship of Our Ancient Churches’, Historic England has just published the results of its survey into public awareness of the crisis facing the nation’s places of worship. The results show that people are blithely unaware that many are at risk of closure and sale. Instead, they assume that these buildings are sustained in perpetuity by ‘national church authorities, local councils, or national heritage bodies’. Commenting on the research results, Andy Brown, Analytics Director at Historic England, says the widespread misunderstanding about who is responsible for the care of such places is holding back wider