£500,000 boost for heritage centre of excellence

York Minster has revealed news of a major grant from the Garfield Weston Foundation towards its new Centre of Excellence for Heritage Skills and Estate Management.

The foundation’s grant of £500,000 is the largest philanthropic gift granted by a charitable foundation towards the Minster’s work to date. It will support the ongoing £2m fundraising campaign for the Centre of Excellence.

The Garfield Weston Foundation is a family founded grant maker which gives money to support a wide range of charities across the UK, in total donating around £90m each year.

York Minster’s Centre for Excellence will open later this year. It will improve the productivity of restoration work, help to retain traditional craft skills and practitioners, supporting young people in the early stages of their careers and provide dedicated residential facilities for apprentices and trainees.

The vision for the Centre of Excellence is a key element of the adopted York Minster Precinct Neighbourhood Plan, which sets out a policy-led approach to creating a sustainable future for the Minster and its seven hectare estate.

Alex McCallion, director of works and precinct at York Minster, said: “This incredibly generous donation by the foundation will help hugely towards realising our vision for the Centre of Excellence, in turn encouraging national and global learning and knowledge sharing of traditional heritage crafts and cutting-edge technologies.

“The centre is crucial for helping us to secure the environmental, financial and heritage sustainability of York Minster for many years to come and the trustees’ support has played a key part in enabling this to happen.”

Philippa Charles, director of The Garfield Weston Foundation, said: “We are pleased to support the state-of-the-art training facilities and affordable trainee accommodation provided at the York Minster Centre for Excellence.

“In a time of dwindling numbers of heritage craft practitioners learning the skills required to preserve and maintain beautiful historic buildings such as York Minster, we are happy to help support this important project. We look forward to seeing the centre develop.”