Dear Friends,

Well, here it is – a watershed moment we have been working towards for years and wanting to share for some time.

We can finally announce that Historic England has awarded a grant for £72,533 to Thundridge Old Church Action Group towards the rescue project for the Thundridge Old Church, and we’ve shown our commitment by adding match funding from our own fundraising, which we could not have done without you.

This news has also been shared on BBC news and the Historic England website and we also did an interview with Andy Collins on his Three Counties Radio breakfast show last Thursday that you can listen to here at 1:53:35 (feel free to skip the first three minutes about ghosts)

We have worked extremely hard to get to this point. Our extensive historical research on the Old Church over the last few years has started to reveal the site’s incredible significance and the growing support of the community – including every one of you reading this – shows the potential for it having a long-term future as something we all use, take pride in and look after. That is what has motivated Historic England to support us – they do not grant this kind of money easily.

What will be happening in the coming months is the ‘development’ phase where we get into the tower and up to the roof inside to investigate the structure. Then, with the condition survey report we did in 2023 we will prioritise the most important repairs and create a ‘schedule of works’ which is a detailed set of instructions we can issue for contractors to quote against.

We are already laying the ground for follow on funding streams for the repairs and improvements that will ensure that Thundridge Old Church will be saved for future generations and that the site can be a safe and welcoming green oasis, providing opportunities for learning about your local history and archaeology, and bringing it back into limited use as a venue for creative events.

We hope that you will be as excited for this project as we are. We’ll be sharing updates each week on the progress of the development phase, some mini projects and reveals – please pass this on to anyone you can think of who might be interested in what happens next so they can follow us on Facebook and Instagram or sign up to the email mailing list here -> Mailing List Sign-Up

Your support is crucial – we’ve got loads of ideas about what we think people want, but it belongs to everyone and we need to know what matters to you. As a tiny team, we also can’t do it alone. If you would like to give hands-on help, get involved or have ideas for events, please let us know – we’d love to hear from you!