We made the November deadline!

A formal bid to the National Lottery Heritage Fund for funding support to repair the ailing North Aisle roof, recreate the space underneath and add a new tea station and possibly a toilet, was submitted to NLHF on 18th November 2024. It is hoped to receive a response to the application in March 2025. John Bostock (Church Historian) is leading the team, who have worked so hard to compile this quite complex application. If successful, we will be able to proceed into the Development Stage, that in turn will begin a process of detailed structural planning for all the necessary work, including tendering. This is again a somewhat lengthy process as with all heritage work and will continue through to the Delivery Stage, when the actual work will be finally accomplished.  The National Lottery Heritage Fund also expect the submission to contain plans for new community activities in the flexible space created as part of the Project, hopefully leading to greater use and sustainability of the church building going forward. Grateful thanks to all those involved, not least Sarah Odell our adviser from the Diocesan Office in Chelmsford. 

Roof Project Update May 2025

Although very little seems to be happening with the Roof Project at present, readers may be assured that behind the scenes there is a lot of hard work taking place. Working on a programme costing more than £1m. and involving large sums of public money raised by those who play the National Lottery is a great responsibility and actually, rather scary. Accountability is hugely important and there are many pages of details to read, to write and to get signed off at each stage. We have every hope that the project will be successfully completed, but it will take time and therefore, we still have to be patient.

If anyone has any queries, please do contact John Bostock (Project Lead), or Peter Horton on: peter.d.horton@outlook.com.

Our continued thanks for your support and donations.