Wells Cathedral has received £47,700 from the National Lottery Heritage Fund to help address the impact the coronavirus crisis has had on its work and finances.

Since the Covid-19 pandemic and lockdown began, Wells Cathedral has faced huge challenges. During full lockdown, the cathedral was closed for 12 weeks.

Since then, as lockdown has eased, a skeleton staff has worked flat out to adapt and offer socially-distanced access in line with requirements.

But despite this, an estimated 118,000 people have been unable to visit the cathedral since the crisis began.

The financial impact of reduced visitor numbers and donations, plus the costs of adapting to Covid-19, are enormous.

To tackle this Wells Cathedral is applying for a raft of grants, has used the assistance offered by the government, and has introduced spending cuts.

Its Bounce Back Appeal, launched in June, has raised more than £70,000 in donations from the local community and beyond.

The Very Rev Dr John Davies, Dean of Wells, said: "Thanks to the National Lottery and its players we can now bring more of our staff back from furlough, fund equipment needed to safely further open up the cathedral under the 'new normal' and work to re-deploy our army of dedicated volunteers to support visitors.

"All this is vital to re-start income generation and ensure we can safeguard our unique heritage. We're grateful that the National Lottery Heritage Fund is supporting us at this crucial time – it's a lifeline to us and others who are passionate about sustaining heritage for the benefit of all."

The funding, made possible by people playing the National Lottery, was awarded through the National Lottery Heritage Fund's Heritage Emergency Fund.

More than £50 million was made available to provide emergency funding for those most in need across the heritage sector.

The UK-wide fund aimed to address both immediate emergency actions and help organisations to start thinking about recovery.

Ros Kerslake, chief executive of the National Lottery Heritage Fund, said: "Heritage has an essential role to play in making communities better places to live, supporting economic regeneration and benefiting our personal well being.

"All of these things are going to be even more important as we emerge from this current crisis.

"Thanks to money raised by National Lottery players we are pleased to be able to lend our support to organisations such as Wells Cathedral during this uncertain time."

Like Wells Cathedral, other charities and organisations across the UK that have been affected by the unprecedented impact of the coronavirus outbreak are being given access to a package of support of up to £600 million of repurposed money from the National Lottery.

This money is supporting some of the most vulnerable people in communities and spans the arts, community, charity, heritage, education, environment and sports sectors.