Grants for Places of Worship
Located in a rural Suffolk hamlet with approximately 300 residents, All Saints Church is a Grade I listed church dating back to 12th century. This project focused on making the building watertight and installing efficient heating.
A lively programme of community activities promoted through another HLF-supported project, the website Angels and Pinnacles, resulted in a significant increase in visitors. These events included inviting people to ‘Buy a Tile’, a World War One exhibition and creating a children’s guide, piloted by a local school.
Now the church has a higher profile in the village and continues to be used as a community space by the whole village.
“There is an increased sense of pride and ownership of the church within the village. The church is now more of a community centre and there is a different feeling about the building – it now belongs to everyone. It is no longer seen as the exclusive property of those who worship there and many people attend events who do not go to services.”