Beautiful mosaics restored to former glory thanks to £190,000 National Lottery grant

September 2024

Parishioners at an internationally famous church in Droitwich Spa are celebrating after securing a grant from National Lottery players of nearly £190,000, thanks to The National Lottery Heritage Fund. 

The funding will go towards a £260,000 project of cleaning and conserving mosaics.

The walls of Catholic Church of the Sacred Heart and St Catherine of Alexandria are covered with some of the finest venetian glass mosaic artwork in Europe and welcomes thousands of visitors from across the UK and other parts of the world each year to see the astonishingly beautiful scenes. 

The Church was built in the style of the basilica churches of Ravenna, near Venice, between 1919 and 1921. The mosaics were largely completed by 1932 and won national acclaim at the time. 

The National Lottery Heritage Fund grant will allow the church to clean and conserve the mosaics, as well as digitising the paintings by Gabriel Pippet that were converted into the beautiful mosaics by Maurice Josey and his assistant, Fred Oates. 

A visitor programme is also being made available including organised monthly tours, regular exhibitions and mosaic workshops for children. 

A spokesperson from the Parish said: “We are extremely grateful to the National Lottery players for helping us to preserve this unique and magnificent church so that visitors can continue to enjoy its outstanding beauty.“

The Church is open on weekdays between 10am and 6pm and on weekends between 12noon and 5.30pm, unless there are any religious services in progress. 

Discover the mosaics