WINCHESTER Cathedral is one large step closer to raising its £3m target for essential works after two substantial grants from local and national government.

The Government’s World War One Cathedral Repairs Fund has awarded £500,000 and Hampshire County Council has gifted £200,000 for the Learning Centre, leaving the Cathedral a target of £2.5m.

Dame Mary Fagan, Chairman of Winchester Cathedral Trust, said: “This is absolutely wonderful news from the World War One Cathedral Repairs Fund. We are so grateful to everyone who has helped us get this far – the Heritage Lottery Fund, Hampshire County Council, the Friends of Winchester Cathedral and all the many trusts and individuals who have been so generous with their support.

“We are now able to complete the refurbishment and extension of the Learning Centre and continue with renewed confidence with all the conservation and repair work to the Cathedral which is so desperately needed.”

The news comes just a week after the Cathedral received nationwide coverage when 27 tonnes of scaffolding were erected for works to the leaking roof.

Annabelle Boyes, the Cathedral’s receiver general and canon treasurer, and the project director for the multi-million pound development is “delighted at the successful outcome of its application to the WW1 Fund”, for which the Dean and Chapter applied in January this year.

“This grant means we are now in a position to make a start on replacing some of the 1935 wiring and lighting circuits in the Lady Chapel and the South Transept, which is desperately needed,” she said.

The appeal is for repairs to the ancient building’s roof, windows, high vaults and wiring, for improvements to the educational facilities, and for the conservation, improved access and display of the Cathedral’s crypts and the medieval Winchester Bible.