£2 million appeal launched to save historic section of Lichfield Cathedral
A £2 million appeal will be launched by Lichfield Cathedral to save the last remaining two-storey Chapter House in the UK.
The building has housed the cathedral's library in its upper room since 1758 where it has remained intact for more than 250 years.
The cathedral urgently needs to raise funds to reverse serious water damage and stone erosion on the house, which was built from different types of red sandstone.
Weather over the years has caused the top layer of stone-work to weaken and the roof has started to show signs of distress.
The damage now poses a substantial risk to the building's interior and the library collection.
The Reverend Adrian Dorber, Dean of Lichfield, said: "Our cathedral is beautiful but fragile.
"It falls to us to look after it and keep it in good repair for the rest of this century.
"We hope we can raise funds from a wide variety of sources and get the job done in 2016 and 2017.
"We want to show Lichfield Cathedral and its proud city to many more people, so playing our part in strengthening the economy of the area and ministering to a wider and more diverse public."
The library collection includes 15th century hand copied manuscripts of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, one of the three surviving original copies of Christopher Saxton's maps of Tudor England and a manuscript of illustrations issued by and signed by Charles I.
The house is home to a long-term exhibition focussing on the Anglo-Saxon history of the cathedral, including the St Chad Gospels, the Lichfield Angel and Christian items from the Staffordshire Hoard.
The appeal will be officially by the Reverend Dorber and appeal chairman Johnny Leavesley on February 2.
It comes almost 12 months after the cathedral raised £3.7 million to restore and reinstate the Herkenrode stained glass windows.
A project to re-wire and re-light the cathedral and The Close should is also nearing completion after Lichfield became one of 31 venues to receive a grant from the First World War Centenary Cathedral Repairs Fund.
Lichfield, which had been facing the possibility of closure, received £800,000 after being named one of England's most important historic buildings.
