Church ‘lost £8bn’ in rush to sell off historic parsonages

Campaigners warn that thousands of vicars have already been moved out of valuable parish buildings

ENGLAND’S vicarages and parsonages are almost as well-known as its churches. But campaigners say they may soon be all but gone following a 70-year selling off process which began following the Second World War that has seen thousands of vicars ejected from the historic buildings and moved into private houses.

They have also raised concerns that many modern priests have no interest in living in the properties – leaving them vulnerable to being sold. Campaign group Save Our Parsonages esti- mates that 8,000 such houses have been sold by dioceses since the Second World War, causing the church financial loss because of the growing value of property. The group says young recruits have less interest in living in rectories and parsonages because they want more of a private life and feel guilty about living in a grand house.

One current case is in the diocese of Bath and Wells, where the Grade II listed East Coker vicarage, built in the 19th century, is under threat of sale.

Amelia Bennett, 72, a member of the local parochial church council, said the vicarage first came under threat two decades ago, and a plan to lease the building to the local community was drawn up – but it never came to fruition. She said one rector said he had no interest in living in the building because it was “too big and too draughty”. She added: “It’s a beautiful architectural set-up, we’ve got lovely almshouses and we feel it really belongs to the village, it doesn’t belong to the diocese.”

Anthony Jennings, director of Save Our Parsonages, which supports par- ishes who are trying to save local rectories from sale, said the rate had declined in recent years, raising concerns that some of the dioceses were simply running out of buildings. “We’re dealing with two or three cases at the moment – in the past it was 10 at any one time. Two or three years ago the rate started to slow down,” he said.

Mr Jennings estimates that had the church hung on to its buildings, it would now have a portfolio worth £8billion, assuming that each of the 8,000 houses sold, which are in demand because of their Victorian architecture and good size, would now be worth an average of £1million.

He said: “I think quite a few of the younger clergy also take the view that they shouldn’t be living in big houses. They feel some kind of guilt that they’re living in a better house than everybody else, which is ridiculous, because everyone knows it’s a parish parsonage and not their house.

“One quite worrying issue is this issue about privacy, because the dioceses are trying to push this idea that it should be a private house. Our idea is about community. While a parsonage was once the centre of the community, it no longer is because the dioceses say they should have their privacy. In the past everyone knew where the vicar was and now they wouldn’t, because he’s on a housing estate.”

In East Coker the nearby church is home to the ashes of TS Eliot and his wife Valerie, so Ms Bennett hopes that the connection could save the vicarage.

“I have written to TS Eliot America to see if they may be interested in pursuing this,” she said. “I wondered whether they might be interested in making it into an Eliot centre.”

In a letter to Mr Jennings seen by The Sunday Telegraph the Venerable Anne Gell, Archdeacon of Wells, said the decision to sell the East Coker building “has not been taken lightly”.

A spokesman for the Diocese of Bath and Wells said it “is seeking to sell the current vicarage at East Coker on the recommendation of the rector and the parochial church council. This will allow them to provide a more modern and manageable home for the new associate priest they are seeking to appoint to the Coker Ridge benefice, and allow that person to concentrate on working alongside the rector.”

‘The younger clergy feel some kind of guilt that they’re living in a better house than everybody else’