The chancellor determined an unopposed petition which sought the conversion of the lavabo and niche in the sanctuary of this Grade I listed church into an aumbry. The conversion involved the introduction of a carefully detailed oak aumbry which obscured, but did not damage, the lavabo and niche. The Statement of Significance listed the significance of the lavabo as high but the Diocesan Advisory Committee (DAC) nevertheless advised that, in their opinion, the works would not be likely to affect the character of the church as a building of special architectural or historic interest, and that therefore there was no particular requirement for consultation. The chancellor decided that the works would, in fact, be likely to affect the character of the church. He postulated that the DAC had advised as it had on the basis that it believed that the proposed changes were beneficial rather than harmful to the character of the church. The chancellor made clear that the consultation requirements under rule 8(3) of the Faculty Jurisdiction Rules 2013 were engaged whenever the proposed works would be likely to affect the character of a listed church, regardless of whether the changes would be harmful or neutral or beneficial. To find otherwise would be to require a subjective pre-judgment to be made which would affect whether the local authority and amenity societies should be consulted. The chancellor directed that special notice of the petition be served on the relevant amenity societies. The amenity societies did not object to the works.

The chancellor applied the Duffield guidelines and observed that, in determining whether the proposals would result in harm to the significance of the church as a building of special architectural or historic interest, an overall view should be taken. He held that the quality of the proposed aumbry meant that there was no harm to the special architectural character of the church, but that the loss of a historic feature (namely the lavabo) from view did cause some harm to the special historic character of the church; nevertheless, the harm would not be great and the resulting public benefit outweighed that harm. The faculty was granted. [RA]