WORCESTER Cathedral has been awarded a grant of £47,000 to deliver a foundation degree for stonemasons and other craftspeople.

The grant, from Historic England, will allow the cathedral to keep delivering the Cathedral Workers Fellowship programme, which is a partnership between nine cathedrals with in-house stonemason teams.

Emily Draper, Worcester Cathedral’s assistant works manager and former CWF apprentice, said "In my fourth year as an Apprentice at Worcester Cathedral I was privileged enough to be enrolled onto the Cathedral Workshop Fellowship Degree Course.

"Modules included subjects such as Architectural History, Conservation, Carving, Geometry and Work Based Projects.

"The course is intrinsically designed to operate in tandem with the students own working life and I personally encountered many ways in which my degree learning experiences fed into my professional practices at the Cathedral.

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"Having graduated in 2017, I am now a Work Based Tutor for the CWF and continue to care for our precious Cathedral as the Assistant Works Manager."

Frances Cambrook, executive director of the Cathedrals' Workshop Fellowship, said: "The CWF is delighted to have been successful in our bid to the Historic England Covid-19 Emergency Fund.

"Covid-19 forced us to suspend delivery of our work-based craft skills training course in mid-March and we are unsure when we shall be able to welcome students back again.

"What we do know is that we shall have to make significant adjustments to the course to meet new social distancing and travel guidelines.

"This funding will enable us to maintain momentum and develop alternative ways of delivering our highly practical course for heritage crafts people using webcasts, video demonstrations and other remote learning tools."