A research project led by the University of St Andrews and funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) should help preserve historically valuable medieval churches in Scotland.
 
The scheme aims to discover which churches in Scotland are survivors of the Reformation.
 
A pilot for the Corpus of Scottish Medieval Parish Churches project has already analysed 105 buildings in the dioceses of Dunkeld and Dunblane thanks to funding from the AHRC.
 
But now a grant of £490,656 from the AHRC will allow the architectural and documentary evidence for the 258 parishes in the dioceses of St Andrews and Brechin to be similarly logged.
 
This second phase is expected to take three years, starting in March 2012.
 
The aim is to eventually create a website archive - freely accessible to all - of all buildings and sites, and their documentation, associated with medieval parish churches in Scotland.
 
Many religious buildings fell into disrepair and disuse after the Reformation and it’s hoped the move will vastly enhance the understanding of this previously neglected aspect of the medieval church.
 
Principal Investigator is Professor Richard Fawcett of the School of Art History at the University of St Andrews whose book, Architecture of the Scottish Medieval Church 1100-1560, was published earlier this year.
 
He said: “For too long these important buildings have been neglected in terms of documenting their historical and cultural value.
“We are tremendously pleased that our work on the medieval parish churches of Scotland has been considered worthy of such a substantial grant, and we are extremely grateful to the Arts and Humanities Research Council for the vote of confidence that this represents.
 
“We hope this ‘catalogue’ will help preserve these very important buildings.”
 
The co-investigators are Professor Richard Oram of the History and Politics Division of the University of Stirling and Dr Julian Luxford of the School of Art History of the University of St Andrews.
 
The funding will enable a PhD studentship to be based at St Andrews, which will focus on the architecture of the Scottish collegiate churches, as well as a post-doctoral researcher, based at Stirling.
 
The first phase of the Corpus project has already provided benefits to both academic and non-academic bodies and it is anticipated that the findings of the project’s second phase will be valuable to community, church and heritage groups, as well as to councils and other people and organisations with a role in the use and preservation of these buildings and sites.
 
ENDS

Notes for Editors
AHRC Media contact: Jake Gilmore, Communications Manager, 01793 416021; j.gilmore@ahrc.ac.uk  

The pilot phase of this project, which covered the 105 parish churches in the dioceses of Dunkeld and Dunblane, was funded by the AHRC in 2008-2009.
The corpus is available at http://arts.st-andrews.ac.uk/corpusofscottishchurches

The Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC): Each year the AHRC provides approximately £100 million from the Government to support research and postgraduate study in the arts and humanities, from languages and law, archaeology and English literature to design and creative and performing arts. In any one year, the AHRC makes hundreds of research awards ranging from individual fellowships to major collaborative projects as well as over 1,100 studentship awards. Awards are made after a rigorous peer review process, to ensure that only applications of the highest quality are funded. The quality and range of research supported by this investment of public funds not only provides social and cultural benefits but also contributes to the economic success of the UK.