AN application for almost £500,000 of Heritage Lottery Funding to renovate a church described as one of the most important small parish churches in the country has been rejected.

St Mary’s Church Lydiard Tregoze Conservation Appeal submitted the request for funding of £492,000 to help them complete an £800,000 scheme of renovations at the church set in the grounds of Lydiard Park.

The main focus of the application to the Heritage Lottery Fund was to conserve the extensive medieval wall paintings, which have been identified by the Church of England as one of the 100 artworks currently most in need of conservation in their 100 Church Treasures Appeal.

Appeal Chairman Paul Gardner said: “Our revised bid to the Heritage Lottery Fund application has unfortunately been unsuccessful as it was felt that it would not sufficiently achieve the people and community outcomes required.

“The HLF committee however recognised the exceptional heritage importance of the church and its contents and have strongly indicated that they would welcome a revised application that provided stronger outcomes for people and communities and evidenced clearer links to Lydiard House.”

The extensive conservation project at the church began in 2011, with the first stage completed two years later when repairs were made to the roof and windows to make the building wind and water tight.

But despite this latest set-back in bridging their funding gap for the renovations of the impressive wall paintings, work is now already underway in another wing of the church where work has now started on urgent conservation work to the 18th century Reredos and east chancel wall by the internationally acclaimed conservator Jane Rutherfoord.

The funding for these renovations has been provided through the generosity of public donations towards the appeal as well as grants from Wiltshire Historic Churches Trust, Allchurches Trust, Jill Franklin Trust, The St Andrews Conservation Trust and the William and Jane Morris Trust.

Paul said: “The works will address long standing damage and water penetration. It will also help to inform the approach to the conservation of the historic interior and the extensive medieval wall paintings in the church which forms part of the much larger conservation project.

“Although we are disappointed in the decision made by the Heritage Lottery we will be resubmitting a revised application in spring 2016.

“In the meantime, we believe carrying out the work to the Reredos means that the public are able to see that their donations to our appeal fund are being used to continue to restore and conserve the beautiful interior of the church.”

“We continue to be very grateful for the ongoing support to our appeal by the many visitors to the church which has not only allowed us to fund the works to the Reredos but means we have in excess of £189,000 in our appeal fund.”