Chancel be a fine thing

Two friends of mine - Shropshire Star employees both, have just bought a house together. Aah.

As they were buying it, the female half of the couple, Rhea, told me how relieved she was to have a certificate stating they were exempt from Chancel tax.

“Council Tax?” I asked. “How do I get exemption from that?”

“No Chancel tax,” she explained. Then went on to talk some rot about churches. Needless to say I did not believe her.

She was not surprised. She launched into the tale of her fella Simon’s mate Tim who told friends in the pub he was having to pay chancel tax as part of buying his new home.

The tax was apparently a contribution to the local church. None of his friends, some who lived in the same town, knew anything about it and told him he was being had.

So you can imagine how smug Rhea was when the story of Carno couple Andrew and Gail Wallbank

came through. They have been hit with a bill of £200,000 because of the aforementioned Chancel payment. They have to pay for the repairs to a church hundreds of miles away because they have a farm there.

I’m glad I don’t get paid enough to buy a house. Or a farm. Or a church.

David Burrows is National News Editor at the Shropshire Star.

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