Town charity is praying for funds to save church
ACHARITY in a Northumberland town has launched a fundraising campaign to enable it to buy a former church and turn it into a community hub.
Corbridge Community Partnership is looking to raise £100,000 to submit bids to the Government’s Community Ownership Fund and National Lottery Heritage Fund.
The group is currently leasing the at-risk building, on Princes Street, until 2025 and has an option to purchase.
However if they fail to raise the money, Methodist Church authorities could be forced to sell the church to housing developers, which residents believe will “only benefit a few people”.
The church closed in 2022 after more than 150 years and since its closure, the community partnership has created the Corbridge Heritage Centre, which is claimed to be an “Aladdin’s Cave of Historical Information”.
Run by 20 volunteers, it opened in 2023 and has so far attracted more than 1,000 visitors. The Heritage Centre already offers “tea and chat” sessions, and Tynedale Hospice at Home have used it for counselling.
The Corbridge Community Partnership hopes to expand services for vulnerable and isolated people, and those with dementia and their carers.
The recently-registered charity has already commissioned architects JDDK to drawn up plans to transform the building’s interior, should the bid be successful.
The group hopes to raise £50,000 from a Crowdfunder and another £50,000 from funding sources “who they are already in contact with”. They have also been running fundraising events, including producing thousands of cans of Corbridge Apple Juice and Corbridge Cider from the town’s apple pressing weekend.
Maurice Hodgson, chairman of the Corbridge Community Partnership, said: “We want to create a vibrant centre for community services and activities to benefit everyone in Corbridge by transforming the interior of this at risk building to meet the demand here for health and wellbeing, education, welfare and other services.
“We all want to leave behind a brilliant legacy for future Corbridge generations
“But we need the help of our local community to make this happen.”
A Crowdfund has already raised more than £10,000 (including Gift Aid) since it was launched on Tuesday, March 12. For more information or to make a donation, visit the Corbridge Community Hub crowdfunding page.
The Community Ownership Fund, part of the Government’s Levelling Up agenda, has already benefitted other Northumberland projects such as the Fishers Arms in Horncliffe, which has now fully reopened. Other community projects such as the Samson Inn in Gilsland, and the Forge at Ulgham are hoping that the fund can help save their pubs.