Hull Minster has been awarded almost £100,000 to help secure the future of the Grade 1 listed church and its rich heritage.

Thanks to National Lottery players, the Minster has received a £97,000 Resilient Heritage Grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund.

Following two years of exciting changes at the Minster, with a remodelled Nave and new shop, café and visitor facilities, the grant will help to strengthen the ability of the church, its staff and volunteers to reach heritage tourism visitors through new activities.

Specialist consultants will be appointed to help the Minster teams investigate and understand the 700-year-old church’s conservation needs, identify heritage collections and create opportunities to finance and present them.

Through the support the funding will provide, the Minster will also undertake an options appraisal of commercial, community and education engagement activity that it can undertake.

The lottery funding is a further boost to the Minster following completion earlier this year of the second phase of the church’s £4.5m development project, which included the opening up of the Nave to form a flexible space for worship and cultural, artistic, community and corporate events.

The Vicar of Hull Minster, the Reverend Canon Dr Neal Barnes, said: “The activities that result from this very welcome funding will be compatible with, and sympathetic to, the Minster’s historic setting in Hull’s Old Town and our responsibility to be an active and growing church.

“Our ambition is that the church’s heritage will be well maintained and self-sustainable and that our conservation needs are supported and funded, contributing to the quality and growth of Hull’s visitor economy.”

The grant follows a bid submitted by Hull Minster’s Parochial Church Council (PCC), which is responsible for the management of the church, its finances and assets and for promoting its spiritual mission.

PCC Chair John Lawson said: “We’re delighted to receive this funding, which will support a range of activities to assist our sustainable growth, as a place of worship and a community hub, while enabling us to capitalise upon the church’s amazing heritage

“This grant will also enable us to identify ways to enhance the recruitment, training and development of volunteers so we can welcome more visitors.”

Resilient Heritage Grants are intended to enable organisations that are not staffed by heritage professionals to develop the skills and acquire the resources and knowledge to conserve, manage and present heritage assets.

Organisations who seek future major funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund will be required to have undertaken a Resilient Heritage Project, so the grant will qualify the Minster to apply for further support in the years ahead.

The funding relates to the status of Hull’s Old Town as a Heritage Action Zone and will support the growth of tourism in the historic heart of the city, thereby benefitting local businesses.

Hull Minster has previously received £228,000 from the Heritage Lottery Fund for extensive repairs to the Nave roof, which were completed in 2017