The West Front Project

Peterborough Cathedral celebrated a jubliant start to 2010 with the completion of The West Front Project to restore our iconic West Front. This has been the largest ongoing fundraising and conservation project to take place at the Cathedral in recent years and so Cathedral staff were delighted to complete the project on time and on target just before Christmas 2009.

The iconic West Front of Peterborough Cathedral is arguably one of the most important gothic constructions in the UK. Unfortunately, centuries of pollution and weathering left it in urgent need of restoration and repair. In 2007, The West Front Project began to restore the fabric and in particular a number of the 13th Century statues which adorn the Cathedral’s West Front. The project was split into three vital phases starting with the central portion with its 33 statues, then the South Tower area and finally the North Tower and the restoration of the 16th century sundial.

This vast and expensive project, partially supported by English Heritage, saw generous donations from over 120 individuals, as well as 26 grant making organisations and the Peterborough Cathedral Development & Preservation Trust who contributed between them a phenomenal £584,000 towards the £600,000 restoration cost.

This target was achieved through a number of successful fundraising schemes including The Custodian of a Statue scheme, Pinnacle Pioneers & the Stone for Sale initiative. All avenues for fundraising proved enormously popular and we are delighted that all but 2 of the 33 statues were ‘adopted’ by generous benefactors, our Pinnacle Pioneer scheme even attracted the likes of best selling author Ken Follet, and we successfully sold more than 500 small pieces of genuine 800 year old West Front rubble in the run up to Christmas last year.

We are still inviting Custodians to ‘adopt’ the remaining two statues and anyone who would like any more information about the West Front Project can contact the Cathedral fundraising team on 01733 355315 or email trust@peterborough-cathedral.org.uk.

There is due to be a special Donor Day Evensong & Reception in June 2010 to thank all those involved in helping to raise the £600,000 for this project so please view our Events Calendar or call 01733 355315 for more information about this event.

The Cathedral has just launched its newest fundraising project - ‘Save the Ceiling’ - to re-enforce the downpipes on the Cathedral roof to prevent the overflow of rainwater from heavy downpours caused by climate change seeping through to the internal fabric of the Cathedral and putting the great organ and the unique 13th century hand-painted Nave Ceiling at grave risk. The amount required for this project is estimated to be in the region of £100,000.

Shortly after this next urgent maintenance project is complete, we will turn our attention to raising funds for our longer term strategy to develop the life and work of our Cathedral with our exciting Peterborough 900 campaign due to launch in spring 2011. For more information on this fantastic campaign to expand our capabilities ahead of the Cathedral’s 900th birthday in 2018, please click here.