The regeneration of a church at a former naval dockyard has scooped a major prize from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS).

Sheerness Dockyard Church on Sheppey won top prize in the RICS UK Project of the Year Awards, it was announced at a ceremony last night.

The Grade II*-listed building, which dates from 1828, has been restored and transformed after being badly damaged by fire in May, 2001.

The church reopened in June last year as an enterprise centre named IslandWorks, which provides much-needed support for young people seeking to start a new business on Sheppey.

The restoration was carried out by the Sheerness Dockyard Preservation Trust (SDPT) at a cost of £9.5 million.

A £5.2m donation came from the National Lottery Heritage Fund, a further £3.2m worth of contributions was given from various trusts and foundations, including Historic England.

After the Naval Dockyard closed in 1960, the church continued as a place of worship, until the early 1970s, when it was then used as a sports club.

It was empty at the time of the 2001 fire and lay derelict for the next two decades.

The site was acquired by Swale council in 2016 via compulsory purchase, and ownership was later transferred to the SDPT.

The church, which was designed by George Ledwell Taylor who also designed Hadlow Castle and parts of Trafalgar Square in London, is regarded as an architectural masterpiece and had been classified as one of the most important buildings at risk in the South East.

The team behind the project restored the building’s historic fabric while re-purposing the interior to suit its new civic purpose.

The RICS judges said: “This fire-damaged ruin has been meticulously and sympathetically restored, prioritising the retention of the original fabric and ensuring the faithful restoration of its exterior to George Ledwell Taylor's original designs.

“Through innovative techniques and materials, lost elements have been sympathetically reconstructed, preserving the historical integrity of the structure.

“Internally, the project strikes a delicate balance between preserving original features and accommodating new functionalities.

“Sheerness Dockyard Church has become a vibrant hub of activity encouraging social engagement and empowerment uplifting a historically marginalised community and providing opportunities for growth and resilience in the future.”

Earlier this year, the restoration project won the Heritage Project of the Year Award in the South East regional heats, which led to the project being entered for national awards Grand Final.

The prize was presented at a ceremony at The Park Plaza Riverbank, London.