The petitioner sought a faculty for restoration work to a war memorial in the churchyard of St Nicholas, Tuxford, comprising cleaning and repainting the lettering. The petitioner was not the incumbent or the PCC, but a private individual. The war memorial was a Grade II listed structure.

Under section 66(5) of the Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction and Care of Churches Measure 2018, monuments and memorials do not automatically fall into the ownership of the building or land to which they are attached. Instead, its owner is the person who erected them, while they are alive, and after that person’s death, the heirs at law of the person commemorated. Under section 66(1), a faculty may be granted for works to a memorial even if its owner cannot be found after reasonable efforts have been made.

The court emphasised that a faculty did not over-ride other provisions of law relating to ownership rights or listed building regulations, and clarified that section 66 allowed the consistory court to grant faculties for work on memorials whose owners could not be found only where genuine but unsuccessful attempts to discover the owner had been made. The court found that, despite the petitioner’s lack of initial investigation into ownership, subsequent research by a third party had satisfied the requirements of section 66(1)(b), establishing that reasonable efforts to find the owner had been made without success.

On the petitioner’s standing, the court acknowledged limitations on the rights of private individuals to seek faculties, noting the requirement for a ‘personal interest’ in the matter. However, given the petitioner’s acceptance of responsibility, support from the PCC and local authorities, and the fact that without her action the memorial might remain unrestored, the court found she had sufficient standing.

Regarding the proposed works, the court accepted expert advice from the War Memorials Trust over the more general opinions previously available. The court granted a faculty for: (1) water cleaning and, if necessary, subsequent steam cleaning of the limestone part of the monument; and (2) like-for-like replacement of missing colour to the 1921 inscriptions. No work would commence until written confirmation that listed building consent was not required.