Refurbishment Project

The Challenge

Churches nationally are facing real threats to their long-term futures. Reductions in congregation size and shortages of funding for repair work, especially for historic churches such as St Peter’s, are increasingly challenging the sustainability of the buildings.

Part of the answer, as set out in the Taylor Review, is to broaden the use of the church. The core purpose of the church in promoting worship remains; but developing the building as a community resource, where a wider range of community activities can take place, will help St Peter’s generate revenue on a long-term basis.

“The long-term survival of Church of England church buildings requires a change in the way many communities regard these buildings. To survive, a church building must be both valued by, and useful to its community”

The Taylor Review: Sustainability of English Churches and Cathedrals - P15 - DCMS, Dec 2017

The Church needs to continue to serve as a place of worship but also now needs to become a hub for wider activity across the whole of the local community. It is increasingly difficult to plan for either without the presence of some key facilities on site – the church has no kitchen or toilet facilities for example. In addition, there are a number of priority repairs required to the fabric of the building, to ensure its continued sustainability.

The PCC has only limited funds available and so has begun a large scale fundraising programme.

 

The Project

The full project has been split into two phases in order to make fundraising more manageable. .

Phase 1 –  We are delighted to report that Phase 1 is now complete and was opened formally in February 2025. It has involved the installation of a toilet, kitchen and new lobby, together with relevant enabling works (a trench-arch drainage system, the installation of a water supply and the re-location of the font).

The main areas affected in the church are shown on the plan below;

 

 

Phase 2 – the PCC does undertake some level of maintenece work each year but needs an additional injection of financial support to get on top of the problem. The backlog work needed is estimated at around £200k, identified from the formal inspection of the Church that takes place every 5 years. Completion of the work will help keep the current building secure and safe and includes a variety of works - replacing the existing drains, repairs to stone windows, roof repairs, re-pointing of walls etc.

 

The Approval Process

For such significant work, Churches have to apply to their Diocese for permission to proceed. This is know as a Faculty. The Faculty for Phase 1 work - including the kitchen, toilet, new lobby and related enabling works - was granted on 8th July 2024.  As part of the application, the PCC had to submit plans, a detailed specification of the work and some background documents. Here we have provided links to; 

We will need to obtain similar permissions and produce similar documentation when we  undertake the backlog of maintenance work in Phase 2

 

How much have we raised?

Phase 1 was funded by a variety of sources, set out below and we have included links to the organisations involved where appropriate; 

We would like to reiterate our thanks to everyone who has donated so far.

The work continues to raise funds for Phase 2. Your help in supporting that work will make a real difference and ensure that St Peter’s church remains a vital part of the local community for the next millennium.

Visit our donations page

Fundraising, payments and donations will be processed and administered by the National Funding Scheme (Charity No: 1149800), operating as DONATE. Texts will be charged at your standard network rate. For Terms & Conditions, see easydonate.org

The Church of St Peter's, Stanton Lacy needs to raise funds for this and for other charitable purposes.