Saving Grace
David E. Norris on friendless churches
IN 1870, the owners of Stonehenge considered that it was “not the slightest use to anyone any more.” They offered to sell the land to the London and South Western Railway Company. Luckily the offer was declined, but it was a wake-up call.
MP John Lubbock bought land in Avebury in 1871 to stop the stone circles being replaced by houses, William Morris founded the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings in 1877, William Gladstone introduced the first Ancient Monuments Protection Act in 1882, and the National Trust was founded in 1894.
Since then there has been a steady stream of measures along the road of architectural conservation. One of the more recent kids on the block is called Friends of Friendless Churches. It was founded in 1957, the brainchild of
Ivor Bulmer-Thomas.
He believed that the mere presence of a church, even when it stood in an isolated rural spot, was a reminder of our spiritual values. What’s more, he set about saving beautiful, disused churches from decay, demolition and, in some cases, conversion.
Ivor Bulmer-Thomas was born in Cwmbran, near Pontypool. His father was a brick drawer and his mother a domestic servant. By hard work and scholarships he worked his way through Oxford to become a journalist and an MP.
As Chairman of the Executive of the Historic Churches Preservation Trust, and Chairman of the Ancient Monuments Society, he got to know the conservation business inside out.
Maintaining and repairing ancient churches is a costly affair. One half of all Grade I listed buildings in England are churches, and the standards of renovation are extremely high. Also, there are 16,000 parish churches in the UK and on average 30 close each year. That is when the Friends of Friendless Churches can step in.
To date, the Friends of Friendless Churches own over 50 churches.
Rural villages nowadays are likely to be inhabited by older, retired and secular inhabitants and are unlikely to sustain an active congregation.
What to do? Start knitting groups, put on seasonal lectures, open an art exhibition or a supper club?
With just a small office in London, one full-time member of staff and one part-timer, a membership of 2,000 and 200 volunteers, you would think the charity has an impossible task, but a Christmas carol concert at the church of St John the Baptist in Papworth St Agnes illustrates just how churches can be saved.
Papworth St Agnes is situated in Cambridgeshire. It boasts a mere 16 houses and a population of around 40, which is a far cry from the glory days of 1850. Back then the church was substantially rebuilt of chequerboard masonry and had a clock adorning the western belfry.
In 1976 it was declared redundant, and subject to demolition. Enter the Friends of Friendless Churches.
They stepped in alongside the local committee to “set to” in that timehonoured British way. Whilst one group filled in forms for lottery funding and district council grants, as well as seeking out donations, others closer to home began to renovate doors, install facilities, stitch curtains and embroider altar cloths.
They organised a midsummer barbecue, a harvest festival, the odd wedding and funeral in the stillconsecrated churchyard. It all contributed to the restoration funds.
The church became the focal point of the hamlet. That’s why, on a late December evening, it can attract a congregation of over 40 souls.
With a vicar from the Huntingdon diocese leading the carollers, a local farmer lending a field to park the cars, an organist bringing his own keyboard, a committee providing toys for the children and everyone bringing something to eat, it is a true example of community spirit, and goes to show that the ethos of Friends of Friendless Churches is not such a crackpot notion as it may seem at first.
The Friends of Friendless Churches scheme seems to be not so much an organisation, but a labour of love.
And it works.