Notes for a presentation by Eddie Tulasiewicz, The National Churches Trust, Head of Communications and Public Affairs, The National Churches Trust. "Community facilities for parish churches: The National Churches Trust and St Edburg’s Church, Bicester, Oxfordshire". The presentation was given at a conference session entitled "Experiencing Change", part of the "Parish Church Interiors In Changing Times" conference, supported by Historic England.

3. COMMUNITY PAPER BY EDDIE TULASIEWICZ
Good morning. I’m Eddie Tulasiewicz, Head of Communications for the National
Churches Trust.
I’m very grateful to the organisers for having selected this paper for presentation.
Yesterday, there were some extremely stimulating papers delivered. My paper is
modest. I will tell you a bit about the National Churches Trust. Explain our work in
helping churches as they attempt to become ‘domus ecclesia’ or perhaps community
hubs. And then briefly describe a project we part funded at St Edburg’s church in
Bicester.
There are a lot of bodies with the words churches and trust in their title. The
Churches Conservation Trust. The All Churches Trust.
Indeed, The National Churches Trust, was formerly the Historic Churches
Preservation Trust.
It can at times be confusing.
The National Churches Trust is a registered charity and our main charitable
objectives is "promoting and supporting church buildings of historic, architectural and
community value across the UK".[1]
We aim to achieve this by mainly providing
financial grants to repair and modernise church buildings, and also supporting
projects to enable churches to remain open, collaborating with local Churches Trusts
and volunteer bodies, providing practical advice, support and information, and
working to promote public awareness about churches. And I’d echo what Lloyd
Grosman said yesterday about the need to get out the message about churches - in
2013 we ran a project called the UK’s Favourite Churches, where 60 well know
people, from David Cameron downwards, or maybe upwards, chose their favourite
churches - this helped to show that churches are loved by many people of faith and
also those without faith - Michael Palin, an agnostic with doubts is a good example of
someone who loves churches but is not a believer.
As I mentioned, our forerunner was the Historic Churches Preservation Trust, whose
functions we have taken over, together with those of the Incorporated Church
Building Society - formed in 1818 and responsible for funding many of England’s
Victorian churches.
As we heard yesterday, there is talk of a Royal Commission being set up to look at
the future of churches. It may be of interest to know that in 1950 the Church of
England Assembly (now the General Synod of the Church of England) established
the Repair of Churches Commission to decide what should be done about the
problem of the poor state of repair of English parish churches. This resulted in the
creation of the Historic Churches Preservation Trust, which was registered as a
charity in 1953.[2][3]
Its first Secretary and Executive Committee Chairman was Ivor
Bulmer-Thomas, a Conservative politician, the role of Secretary being taken over
later in 1953 by Hugh Llewellyn Jones. Its Trustees included John Betjeman and
Lord Cormack.

4. Today, the National Churches Trust supports church buildings of any denomination
that are members of Churches Together in Britain and Ireland, and we cover the
whole of the United Kingdom. We do not own churches, and we only support
churches that are open for regular worship. We receive no funding from the
Government or from church authorities and our income is derived from individual
donations, and from parishes, Trusts and Foundations, and from investment income.
Since 1953, we have helped around 12.000 churches, chapels and meeting houses
with grants and loans for repairs. We are a small charity with limited resources but
have given pretty much the equivalent of £1.5 m each year in grants to churches,
when adjusted to today’s prices. When we started, we were one of a few grant
makers - today of course, much more money is available from the HLF or the
Government through the roof repair fund etc. One point to note is that we fund
unlisted places of worship as well as listed places of worship. Our latest grants were
announced yesterday and you can fund details on our website at
www.nationalchurchestrust.org.
We are one of very many trusts that churches can approach for help in funding
projects.
Although the Historic CPT mainly funded fabric repairs, the National CT increasingly
finds that more and more demands are placed upon it for funding the installation of
community facilities. Our funding of the installation of these facilities is clearly
changing the appearance on many parish churches. But with the right architects and
design, the impact can be positive - both for the physical fabric and the life of the
church.
We have identified this as a priority area and are unlocking funding previously
restricted for fabric repairs so as to fund more of these projects. Why is this so?
Maybe a good way to start is to hear from a church itself.
As I stated, we announced 29 grants yesterday including and one of these was
a £5,000 National Churches Trust Community Grant to the church of St Andrew in
Wormingford. Essex, a Grade I listed building, to help fund the creation of a kitchen
and an accessible toilet within the church tower.
In their grant application, the the church told us said:”We are aware that worshippers
and visitors travel to the Church from some distance, and express surprise that we
are unable to offer refreshment or comfort. It is less than helpful to suggest that
visitors walk at least 500 metres to the nearest amenities with toilets and these may
not be open. Our mission to attract young children and the elderly is being severely
hampered by the lack of facilities, including toilets, baby-changing or running water.
We know that some Parishioners have elected not to attend the church due to the
lack of facilities and are aware that couples who qualify to marry in the church are
choosing other venues because of the lack of facilities. The Essex Association of
Change Ringers has ceased using our church for bell-ringing events due to the lack
of toilets or the ability to wash hands. The inability to provide simple refreshments in
church prevents us from demonstrating Christian hospitality.”

5. There are an estimated 42,000 Christian places of worship in the UK, and as we
heard yesterday 19,500 – over 40 per cent of them – are listed. The importance of
these buildings as both places of worship and as historic buildings is undisputed. But
church buildings need to play an increasingly important role in providing community
facilities. That’s partly because churches want to serve their own congregations and
the wider local community more effectively but also because the state is withdrawing
from so much activity. Last month Haringey council announced that it would closing
all its community centres and Oxfordshire County Council has said that it will be
closing its family centres. Churches are a place where these activities can take
place.
As the only national charity supporting churches of all Christian denominations,
sizes, ages and locations, the National Churches Trust is in a unique position to
assess the requirements of the ecclesiastical estate. Therefore In 2010 we
conducted a major national survey on how the UK’s church buildings
are maintained and funded, and how they contribute to their wider communities. The
survey was open to all Christian places of worship in the UK and, encouragingly,
around 9,100 places of worship engaged with it.
The overall message from the survey was extremely positive: church buildings are
essential both to the UK’s heritage and to the vitality of towns and villages up and
down the country. In addition to holding religious services, the survey estimated that
nearly 80 per cent of church buildings are used for other purposes, including
community activities, and nearly half are used for cultural activities, including arts,
music and dance.
Church buildings are significant venues for volunteering and the survey estimated
that more than 40 per cent of the UK’s church buildings were being used for support
and counselling services on issues such as homelessness, drug and alcohol misuse,
finance and debt, parenting and mental health. Five years on, I suspect these
numbers are higher.
The survey also found that although many church buildings have key facilities, there
is much room for improvement. It was estimated that nearly a third of the UK’s
church buildings have no toilet facilities, and that listed buildings are generally the
least well equipped. Many church buildings also lack adequate heating or tea and
coffee-making facilities. Those which do have these basic facilities are more likely to
offer additional community activities.
If demand from churches for community facilities was not enough, there is also
support from the public.
In December 2014, the National Churches Trust commissioned an Opinion Poll on
attitudes to church buildings from the polling company ComRes. A sample of 2,000
people from all around Britain were surveyed on line. 87% agreed that churches and
chapels should have good access and modern facilities such as toilets to make it
easier for people to use them.
THE COMMUNITY GRANTS PROGRAMME

6. The importance of providing facilities such as toilets and kitchens and improved
access for members of the public is now widely recognised as a key way in which
churches can remain at the heart of local communities. That is why, since 2008, the
National Churches Trust in addition to a Repair Grants programme, has been
running a Community Grants Programme. The programme aims to enable wider and
more active community use through the installation of new facilities and so ensure
that the UK’s churches and chapels remain living buildings integrated into their local
communities.
Since 2008 the trust has awarded 178 Community grants since totalling
£1,912,200.Funding is modest - it can be as high as 20,000 or as small as 5,000.
Applications for the community grants programme are assessed by the National
Churches Trust’s grants committee using the following criteria which was chaired
until a week ago by the Bishop of Salisbury, Nick Holtam.
• Benefit – what is the demonstrable social benefit of the proposed project?
• Design quality – has its impact on the building been considered/challenged?
• Stakeholder participation – what planning, organisation and coordination efforts
have or will be carried out by the place of worship to maximise the project’s chances
of success?
 Attainability – is the project practical and attainable? Will a grant enable the
work to be carried out?
A prime example of a place of worship benefitting from a community grant is the
church of St Edberg in Bicester in the Diocese of Oxford. Bicester is today a growing
market town, perhaps increasingly well known for Bicester designer outlet shopping
centre. It is one of the fastest growing towns in the UK.
St Edberg dates from the 12th century and the church underwent a restoration from
1862 - 1863 with the help of G E Street, about whom we heard yesterday
The church applied for a community grant to the National Churches Trust in 2013,
with a plan to install two toilets, a servery and to repair the floor at a level to enable
disabled access. This was the second phase of a major re-ordering project which
started with redecoration and rewiring. (the final phase will involve removing pews
and putting down a new limestone floor.
It was mainly through the arrival of a new vicar, Revd Canon Theresa Scott that the
re-ordering project was taken forward - she saw that it was important to update the
building for modern usage as part of a broader mission to serve the community
better. The total cost of works, including fees was 201,000. When they applied to us,
they had a funding deficit of 41,000, having already raised funds from WREN and
Viridor from the landfill tax, Oxfordshire Historic Churches Trust and the LPW VAT
Grants scheme. We awarded them a grant of £10,000

7. Led by architects Acanthus Clews, toilets were installed in the former baptistery, in
the NW corner of the church. The mediaeval font was moved to enable this space to
be converted. Not only was this the only suitable area for toilets to be installed but
also the positioning of the font meant that it was hidden from the rest of the church.
The original Edwardian panelling in the baptistery was reconstructed to form the new
screen across the alcove. The door to the toilet lobby is new but was made skilfully
so it is impossible to distinguish between new and old. Subsequently two toilet
cubicles (one with disabled access) and a storage cupboard were fitted out, with oak
doors to match the outer door. A local heater for hot water in the washbasins was
located in the storage cupboard. The whole toilet area has a flat ceiling to prevent
sounds or odours escaping.
An old suspended wooden floor across the rest of the West End area was removed,
exposing the bare earth beneath. Other tiled areas of flooring were also removed, as
was the font, its stone plinth and the parquet flooring around it. Thw limecrete floor
was then laid with the appropriate sub-strata and underfloor heating was
incorporated at this stage. Finally, the floor was finished with Creeton limestone floor
tiles.
At the other side of the church, the SW corner, a servery was installed. This
comprises a double sink, refrigerator, dishwasher, under-counter cupboards and a
water heater. The worktop is Corian and the woodwork is oak. The whole blends well
with the colouring of the stone floor and is not obtrusive. For safety reasons the work
top encloses the complete area and the only entrance is via a half door which can be
bolted from the inside.
A complete programmable heating system has been installed in the tower, replacing
the existing unreliable and uncontrollable boiler, located in a dark damp cellar.
Outside, a foul drain has been laid to connect the toilets with the public sewage
system, and a water mains connection has been installed, whilst the gas supply main
has been re-positioned to supply the new boiler.
The most visually striking part of the project was the relocation of the font which is
now on a small plinth in the centre of the west end, under the impressive tower arch,
and in line with the altar. The tiling pattern under the tower and in the chancel
was replicated around the font.
Finally, wherever possible, materials have been recycled: the pine parquet flooring,
some pitch pine floorboards, many of the Minton Victorian floor tiles and some
supporting bricks were all been sold for domestic re-use, while the stone plinth of the
font was kept (on the architect’s advice) for future use in the church as the stone is of
high quality.
The project was completed in early 2014, with the opening celebrations taking place
in July 2014.
The aim has been to attract a wider range of users.

8. The PCC developed a marketing and management strategy designed to encourage
a greater variety of users, ranging from commercial interests to community
organisations.
In particular the provision of toilets in the church is already increasing the attendance
at events; the improvement in heating is also beneficial to attendees and is a
welcome feature during the winter.
In the first few months after the project was completed the church has been used
for adult concerts, a photographic exhibition, a Fairtrade AGM, three children’s
concerts organised by the Rotary Club and a number of school groups.
The new location of the font allows full use of the font with people clustered around,
in full view of the congregation, without fear of the priest falling off the high plinth. As
a result it is now used for all baptisms instead of using a portable wooden font.
The church says that : “The stunning visual impact is beyond our expectations: it
links the west and east end in a manner which is both aesthetically and liturgically
pleasing.
The standard of craftsmanship has been very high throughout, but especially in the
tiling and carpentry. Some small but significant details were done by the contractor in
a way which enhanced the final result, and other improvements to the design were
made during the job as a result of their suggestions. Their attention to detail and their
desire to deliver an outstanding end product were evident in all that they did; many
people have been impressed by the quality of the toilet installation, and much praise
has been forthcoming from the congregation and visitors alike.”
St Edberg’s has already drawn up plans for the next phase; the raising and relaying
of the nave floor in the same stone as the West End, together with underfloor
heating to this area, and improved all round access. Costs are high and the
challenge is to relaunch the vision to the congregation and fund raise in an
increasingly challenging environment- made even more challenging by the discovery
of the need for urgent stonework repairs and a new drainage system, discovered at
the last quinquennial inspection
It may be fitting to end with a prayer written by Revd Magie Durrant and used
regularly during by the parish during the building project.
Dear God, we remember with gratitude those who built, repaired and adapted St
Edburg’s church for over 900 years. As we work to tackle the building challenges of
our generation, we ask for your grace and hope; we ask for courage and
determination. We trust in you to enable us to deliver work worthy of the place where
we worship and serve you, almighty God; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen