The Trinity Church Heritage Education Project will highlight the treasures of this West Yorkshire landmark church and put it firmly on the tourist map.

Trinity Church, which towers above the town of Ossett and can be seen from miles away, has just been awarded £48,000 by the Heritage Lottery Fund for much needed conservation work that will better reveal its important architectural features and history for the local community, visitors and school groups.

This ambitious scheme will include heritage interpretation boards that will take visitors on a journey around this Grade II* listed church and tell the story of the part it played in the town’s economic fortunes and social history and some of the characters involved in it.  

Visitors will be able to learn about Benjamin Ingham, Her Majesty’s Consul in Sicily, and an Ossett lad, who in 1862 gave a massive £1,000 towards the total cost of £16,000 needed to build Trinity Church. They can discover more about the local Whitaker family who gifted the spectacular West Window or read the sermon preached at the consecration of the church in 1865, when the then bishop described Trinity Church as a “miniature cathedral” .

Education packs will be available for schools groups and there will be specialist conservation workshops that will give hands-on experience of some of the techniques used today to preserve our history for the next generations.

Vicar Paul Maybury said: “We can now confidently take forward the next stage of making this building accessible to the general public, schools and the local community and welcoming them in.”

This funding allows the church to appoint a Project Coordinator to get the project up and running and raise awareness of the building and its place at the heart of the town and the surrounding area.

Notes to editors

HLF has supported 30,000 projects, allocating £4.7billion across the UK, including £364m to 2,729 projects in Yorkshire & the Humber alone.