Exeter's oldest building needs roof repairs

City council to foot most of the bill

The leaking roof of Exeter’s oldest building is to be repaired, with the city council having to foot most of the bill after the government’s heritage guardians turned it down.

A meeting of the full council next week (April 7) will hear that water is getting in through the roof of St Nicholas Priory, which dates back to the days of William the Conqueror.

An original repair project was costed at £360,000 and the Exeter Historic Buildings Trust, which holds the lease for the city council-owned building, applied for funds from Historic England.

The heritage body came back and asked the trust to lower its sights to critical repairs only, but now Historic England has had its own funding cut by the government and says it can’t help at all.

This means the trust must find £10,000 – the most it can be asked to contribute – while the city council funds the remaining £163,000 of the much-reduced bill which will only cover critical repairs to the roof.

The meeting will hear that it is ‘very likely’ that the trust will seek to terminate its lease on the ancient building due to lack of funds if the council doesn’t come up with the money. The council pledged £88,000 to the work at a previous meeting, and is now being asked to add another £75,000.

The trust was granted a 99-year lease on St Nicholas Priory in September 2018. It is the oldest standing building in Exeter, and the trust hosts guided tours, school visits, weddings and special events such as ghost hunts and theatre evenings.

If it were to hand it back to the council, there is currently no alternative occupier, and the council does not have the budget to maintain it.

The history of the priory dates back to 1087 when an order of monks dedicated it to St Nicholas. For more than 500 years they worshipped there, studied, served the poor and offered hospitality.

The building passed through various hands until in 1877 Lord Clifford of Chudleigh gave the deeds to the Roman Catholic Bishop of Plymouth. The Catholic presence ceased in 1959, and from 1970 until 1989 the old church and neighbouring 21 The Mint were leased to Exeter College of Art and Design for use as its printing department.