- 49 -
little researched; partly, probably, because of a behavioural reluc-
tance to view churches other than as places of worship. This in turn
begs the question of marketing, which we shall consider more fully in
Chapter 3, but it is probably true to say that tourism, and therefore
tourist revenue, is something which has accrued to the Church through
the historical chance of it possessing buildings such as cathedrals
which are tourist attractions - rather than being something which has
resulted from the Church actively marketing these assets. From a
financial management point of view this reluctance is regrettable,
the Church of England as a whole is endowed with a sufficiently large
number of listed (i.e. historic) churches to make them of financial
importance. Whilst a listed building cannot be demolished (but can be
closed and allowed to fall into decay unless further statutory orders
are made), it becomes eligible for government grant towards approved
repairs, and by being thus publicised can attract increased tourist
trade. But as the government grant is normally only 5O per cent and
the income from such tourists likely to be unpredictable, the question
arises as to whether listing a church effectively turns it into an
asset or a liability in the financial sense. In order to research
that a study was made of one church in the Diocese which has recently
become the beneficiary of such a grant.
The Case of Tong St. James'
Tong is an early eighteenth-century village a mile or two beyondthe outer limits of the built-up metropolitan area. The village itself
has only a small resident population (150) and forms part of a parish,
the majority of whose population lives in suburban housing estates.
There is a daughter church - St. Christopher's - among these estates,
and the Incumbent's residence adjoins St. Christopher's not St. James'.
The church was listed in 1971 under the Town and Country Planning Act
