41 churches across the UK will stay open and in good repair thanks to £437,000 of funding awarded by the National Churches Trust.
The latest funding from the National Churches Trust is a much-needed lifeline for 41 of the UK’s churches.
The grants awarded will help fund urgent repairs and modern community facilities, safeguarding unique local heritage and keeping churches open and in use for the benefit of local people.
The National Churches Trust helps hundreds of historic churches each year and with the support of local people keeps them thriving today, and tomorrow.
Catherine Townsend, Director of Church and Community Support at the National Churches Trust said:
“Our latest grant awards support a wide variety of churches and projects. They range from helping to repair roofs at amazing historic churches through to helping fund the installation of loos and kitchens enabling churches to do more to help support local people.”
“The grants are made possible thanks to our Friends and supporters including the Pilgrim Trust. In addition, thanks to our partnership with the Wolfson Foundation, 21 churches benefit from £134,000 of Wolfson Fabric Repair Grants which support repair work at listed churches in the UK.”
“Seven churches in Northern Ireland receive grants thanks to our Treasure Ireland project which is supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund, the Pilgrim Trust and the Department for Communities. “
“The future of the UK’s churches is in our hands. You can support our vitally important work by making a donation or by becoming a Friend.”
Paul Ramsbottom, chief executive of the Wolfson Foundation said:
"As well as being places of worship and buildings of beauty, churches sit at the heart of the community. In many ways they stand between the past and present. We are thrilled to continue our partnership with the National Churches Trust to support the preservation of these significant, much-loved historic buildings across the UK.”
Churches we are supporting include:
- A £25,000 National Churches Trust Cornerstone Grant and a £10,000 Wolfson Fabric Repair will pay for urgent repairs to the tower and spire of the Grade I Listed church of St Peter’s in Bournemouth, one of the finest examples of 19th century gothic revival church architecture.
- A £20,000 National Churches Trust Cornerstone Grant will facilitate the installation of kitchen facilities into Grade II* Listed St Peter’s Church in Stockton on Tees, situated in one of the poorest communities in County Durham, and enable wider use of the church by local people.
- St Mary’s Church, Warwick benefits from a £20,000 National Churches Trust Cornerstone Grant and a £10,000 Wolfson Fabric Repair Grant to help fund the repointing, repairing and replacing of the eroded stonework of St Mary’s important tower. Grade I Listed St Mary’s is one of the UK’s oldest major churches.
- Grade I Listed St Peter’s Church in Herefordshire is the only community space in the village of Stanton Lacy. A £15,000 National Churches Trust Cornerstone Grant will help fund the building of a new lobby for toilets and installing a kitchen to enable greater community use.
Full details
Full details of Cornerstone Grants we have funded directly for fabric repairs and the installation of modern facilities can be found below, listed by alphabetical order of counties. You can see photos of the churches awarded Cornerstone Grants on our Flickr gallery.
Additional grants to fund a range of church building maintenance, small repair and development projects in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have been awarded via the National Churches Trust and by the Wolfson Foundation and with the support of the Pilgrim Trust and in Northern Ireland thanks to the support of the National Lottery Heritage Fund, the Pilgrim Trust, the Department for Communities and the Wolfson Foundation.
Cornwall
St Bartholomew’s Church, Lostwithiel
Diocese of Truro - Church of England
The project
Water damage has affected the flooring in the bell tower of the Grade I Listed church of St Bartholomew which receives a £10,000 National Churches Trust Cornerstone Grant and a £5,000 Wolfson Fabric Repair Grant to fund urgent tower and spire repairs.
The church
St Bartholomew’s is a 12th Century church situated in the very centre of the town of Lostwithiel in Cornwall and is the largest venue in the town.
Lostwithiel is the ancient Stannary town with approximately 3,000 residents and the church has played an important part in the history of the area.
The church was involved with the Civil War when Parliamentary troops were billeted in the building with their horses. Apparently one of the horses was baptised in the Norman Font to annoy the Royalists. High in the belfry is a signature left by one of the soldiers at the time. The tower was hit by a canon fire and still bears the mark. The tower was damaged by lightning and rebuilt slightly shorter than the original. The East window is the largest in Cornwall and the font is thought to be the original and was probably carved in the 13th century.
Dorset
St Peter’s Church, Bournemouth
Diocese of Winchester - Church of England
The project
Weather erosion have made the spire and tower of the church unstable. Grade I Listed St Peter’s church receives a £25,000 National Churches Trust Cornerstone Grant and a £10,000 Wolfson Fabric Repair Grant to fund extensive pointing, mortar and render repairs to the tower and spire. St Peter's tower and spire are visible across Bournemouth, an intrinsic and iconic view for the town.
The church
St Peter's is amongst the finest examples of gothic revivalist church architecture from the Victorian Period.
In 1841, the Revd Morden Bennett commissioned a young G E Street to rebuild the humble Chancel and Nave into a church splendid enough to meet the needs of the great congregations attracted by the increasingly popular seaside resort of Bournemouth.
Inside, St Peter’s is richly decorated with carvings and murals by Powell and Bodley and elaborate late Victorian stain glass windows by Clayton and Bell and later by Comper. The glorious Keble Chapel is by Heaton, Butler and Bayne and the enamelled mosaic by Burne-Jones.
In the church grounds lie the remains of the Shelley Family, the founder of Bournemouth Symphony orchestra Sir Dan Godfrey and Sir Hubert Parry's mother among others.
County Durham
St Peter’s Church, Stockton-on-Tees
Diocese of Durham -Church of England
The project
A £20,000 National Churches Trust Cornerstone Grant will facilitate the installation of kitchen facilities into this Grade II* Listed building in one of the poorest communities in the county to enable wider use of the church. The area houses a large number of refugees and asylum seekers.
The church
The original St Peter’s church was built of wood and stood on the corner of Cranbourne Terrace and Walter Street. Its first incumbent, the Revd Henry Woodman (1875-1905), oversaw the building of a large, red-brick Victorian gothic church with stone dressings, between 1880 and 1881 at a cost of almost £6,000. It was dedicated in October 1881.
The church has a nave and two side aisles, a chancel apse and tower. The windows are predominantly Victorian stained glass with some modern additions. The pulpit and font are Caen stone. Oak panelling taken from the now derelict Holy Trinity Church, Stockton, now line the inside. The church was designated grade II* listed on 1st January 1951.
Derbyshire
The project
A £10,000 National Churches Trust Cornerstone Grant will enable the renewing of lead flashings, replacing gutters, relocating rainwater outlets, and reroofing the oldest slate roofs.
The church
The main church building, which is unlisted, was built in 1849 in gritstone and has been in almost continuous use as a place of worship ever since.
The church has been extended many times and there have been several phases of refurbishment, including a major modernisation of the worship space in the late 1960s, following the amalgamation of congregations from two churches onto one site.
Greater London
Diocese of Southwark - Church of England
On the Historic England Heritage at Risk register
The project
Grade II* Listed St Mary’s is the ancient parish church of Lewisham, first mentioned in a Saxon Charter of 918AD. The church receives a £30,000 National Churches Trust Cornerstone Grant and a £10,000 Wolfson Fabric Repair Grant to fund urgent repairs to the chancel roofs, rainwater goods and to the crypt area.
The church
The current Georgian building, by local architect George Gibson, dates from 1777. It features a medieval tower with a prominent Victorian clock with four faces and is a hidden gem of south-east London architecture.
It was designed as a ‘preaching box’, with galleries and a high pulpit with sounding board, and was used by John Wesley preached.
St Mary’s contains many impressive monuments, including those by renowned sculptor John Flaxman, dating from 1797, Victorian stained-glass windows depicting the life of the Virgin Mary and mosaics from the redesign by Sir Arthur Bomfield, portraying the patriarchs, Empress Helena and Queen Bertha of Kent.
St Mary’s is a strong and diverse church community serving a dynamic community of central Lewisham.
Herefordshire
St Peter’s Church, Stanton Lacy
Diocese of Hereford - Church of England
The project
Grade I Listed St Peter’s is the only community space in the in the village of Stanton Lacy. A £15,000 National Churches Trust Cornerstone Grant will help fund the building of a new lobby for toilets and installing a kitchen to enable greater community use.
The church
A beautifully proportioned cruciform church, St Peter’s was largely built during the Norman period (1066-1154), but parts of the nave and north transepts are Saxon (A.D. 597-1066) in origin. The churchyard is probably older than the church itself and its semi-circular shape suggests it was once round and contained a Celtic church.
St Peter’s Saxon origins are still visible in the stonework in the west and north walls and part of the north transept, with its thin pilaster strips. The chancel is mainly 13th century with the tower and south transept built a century later.
Notable features include 14th century tomb recesses, one allegedly for Edmund de Mortimer; and a 17th century chest. Victorian developments include the windows, altar, reredos of Caen stone with beautiful painted panels. The church’s organ was installed in 1854.
Warwickshire
Diocese of Coventry - Church of England
The project
The Grade I Listed church benefits from a £20,000 National Churches Trust Cornerstone Grant and a £10,000 Wolfson Fabric Repair Grant to help fund the repointing, pointing, repairing and replacing of the eroded stonework of St Mary’s important tower.
The church
St Mary’s landmark tower, destroyed in the Great Fire of Warwick in 1694 and rebuilt in 1704, is over 130ft high. Its design was supervised and perhaps modified by Sir Christopher Wren. Visible from every direction, for centuries it has been the focal point for travellers as they approach Warwick.
The tower offers spectacular views of the surrounding Warwickshire countryside. It houses a ring of ten bells, three of them dating from the original casting of 1701. Every three hours, on the hour, the bells are played as a carillon, each day of the week has its own tune.
St Mary’s was founded on its present site in 1123 by Roger de Newburgh, the Earl of Warwick and is one of the UK’s oldest major churches.
Thanks to its long association with the Earls of Warwick, St Mary’s is a treasure house of Medieval and Tudor art. The church resonates with extraordinary names from history. It houses the tombs of men who were at Poitiers and Crécy and who advised and served the Black Prince and the Tudor monarchs; Beauchamp, Greville, Dudley.
The Beauchamp Chapel, created by the will of Richard Beauchamp in 1464 is regarded as one of the masterpieces of medieval art, second only to the Henry VII chapel at Westminster Abbey.
Yorkshire
St Edward King and Confessor Church, Clifford, West Yorkshire
Roman Catholic
The project
A £10,000 National Churches Trust Cornerstone Grant will enable the refurbishment of cast iron rainwater goods, repairs to drains, windows and the tower at the Grade II Listed church of St Edward King and Confessor Church.
The church
The church is a striking neo-Norman, Romanesque design, inspired in some respects by Durham Cathedral. It was designed by Joseph Hansom from plans drawn up in France by an otherwise unknown, dying draughtsman named Ramsey.
The church dominates its village setting, and its later tower by George Goldie is a landmark in the surrounding countryside. St Edwards’s was consecrated in May 1859 with six bishops present, including Cardinal Wiseman, the Archbishop of Westminster.
The sanctuary of the church is unusually and strikingly arranged with columns and rounded arches screening the Blessed Sacrament Chapel. During a 1991 reordering, some columns were removed and repositioned on the sidewalls of the Lady Chapel, which contains a notable marble statue of the Virgin Mary, carved by Karl Hoffman, a Jewish sculptor working in Rome in 1844.
Diocese of York - Church of England
The project
The small village of Fangfoss has no community centre apart from the church. A £15,000 National Churches Trust Cornerstone Grant will make the Grade II* Listed church of St Martin more welcoming by funding the installation of an accessible toilet, a small kitchen and a ramp to enable it to offer more to the community it serves.
The church
There is evidence of an early Norman Church on the site - excavations show the base of a tower and part of an apse - but the earliest mention of an active church in Fangfoss was recorded in 1235.
By 1591 the chancel was described as "quite fallen down" and by 1602 it was "altogether ruinous". The church was repaired in the 18th century but was then rebuilt in a Norman style between 1848 and 1850 by the Leeds based architect R D Chantrell, who designed Leeds Parish Church.
Chantrell commented that Fangfoss had once been a gem of Norman architecture and he incorporated original Norman stonework into the new building, notably within a magnificent south doorway and an impressive 12th century corbel table.
The current building consists of a chancel, a north vestry, a nave, south door and west bell turret. There is a simple whitewashed interior with an attractive roof structure. One of the fittings - a silver chalice - dates from 1552 and other fittings date from the 17th century.
Scotland
Diocese of Glasgow & Galloway - Roman Catholic
The project
The Grade A Listed church has suffered from water damage over many years. A £20,000 National Churches Trust Cornerstone Grant and a £10,000 Wolfson Fabric Repair Grant will fund urgent window and roof repairs.
The church
Ardrossan Church originally stood within its churchyard on Castle Hill; its foundations are still visible. It was blown down by a violent storm in 1691. In it were altars to Saint Peter and the Virgin Mary. It was excavated in 1911 when it was shown to be a long, oblong building, its chancel of the same width as the nave, above which it was raised by three low steps, placed at wide intervals.
The present church was dedicated in October 1938. It is built of reddish facing brick. The front elevation has a tower to the right, reminiscent of that at Stockholm Town Hall, though much more simple. The main doorway, however, is striking in detail. It has an ornate projecting keystone in stone at the centre of the expanding brick arch. The door feature continues to the gable roof and ends in a small well-detailed cross.
The interior is simple. It consists of a nave, four very large brick piers each 36 inches by 22 inches at either side with a large span between them. The aisle roofs are low, sloping down from the beams above the piers to the small side windows. The whole of the rear area is finished in facing brick.
Cardonald Parish Church, Glasgow
Presbyterian Church
The project
The Grade B Listed church benefits from a £10,000 National Churches Trust Cornerstone Grant and a £5,000 Wolfson Fabric Repair Grant to help fund urgent roof, rainwater goods and masonry repairs.
The church
Cardonald Parish Church started life as a Chapel of Ease in 1889, being a daughter church of Paisley Abbey, before transferring to the Presbytery of Glasgow in 1929.
The church was dedicated in February 1889 and was modelled on the church building which had just been built at Corrie.
Originally built to serve the rural farming community of Cardonald, the magnificent pillared red sandstone building that we see today retains the warm, intimate feel of a country church.
As the earliest public building in the neighbourhood Cardonald’s Parish Church predates the town’s growth as a new suburb and has served its community well for over 130 years.
Although the triple-gabled building is a familiar landmark on the busy Paisley Road West, in 1889 there was only one gable. The east wing was added in 1899. The west wing was added, and the chancel extended, in 1925.
Wales
Diocese of Llandaff - Church of Wales
The project
A £10,000 National Churches Trust Cornerstone Grant will fund urgent roofing and rainwater goods repairs together with work to the parapets, walling, timberwork, linings and decorations of the Grade II Listed church of St Fagan.
The church
The original parish church was built in 1853 and but burnt down just three years later.
The present church was consecrated in August 1856 designed in Early English Decorated Gothic Style. The architect was Thomas Talbot Bury who was a former pupil of the renowned London architect A.W.N Pugin, who with Sir Charles Barry designed the Houses of Parliament
The church has many stained-glass windows one of which is the Triple East Second World War window made by Celtic studios of Swansea 1952.