The beautiful church of St Denys in the village of Eaton is well loved by the local community. It stands at the heart of the village and is the focus of worship and events throughout the year, including national moments such as the recent VE80 anniversary and celebrations of local history.
The church building lends itself to being set up ‘café’ style, following a re-ordering some years ago, and events held in St Denys are usually well attended - they have a reputation for excellent cream teas!
St Denys is Grade I listed, reflecting its historical significance as a unique building with 12th Century origins. The church is bult of ironstone, which gives it a warm honey colour, but is a soft stone prone to erosion, damage that has been exacerbated by historic use of inappropriate cement pointing.
Recently, the church building was placed on the Historic England Heritage At Risk Register, and is in urgent need of repairs in order to continue being a blessing to the village.
In response, the PCC began to envision a project that included more than just the physical restoration needed and took a holistic approach to the future viability of the building. Features such as the installation of an accessible toilet and baby changing facility were planned, to enable long-term use of the church.
St Denys’ restoration project was launched 18 months ago, under the banner of ‘Eaton InSpired’. The project gained local support as it was shared via leaflets, social media, email and conversations around the village. There was also a strong local response both in terms of finances and offers to help, with a key fundraiser stepping up in support of the appeal.
As the PCC started planning the restoration it became evident that a very large grant was going to be needed to enable the work. They were able to secure several smaller grants fairly quickly, but an application to the National Lottery Heritage Fund (NLHF) was seen as the only way to fully achieve the Eaton InSpired project. The project team talked to other churches who had won awards and asked for their experience and advice.
“It’s important to understand that applications to the NLHF have to be viewed in the broader light of heritage, community and biodiversity,” explains project lead Revd Sue Bradley. “Because of this, our application proposal included involving the community in heritage activities, developing local history resources regarding the church, village and ironstone mining, talks and workshops, and efforts to map and count local flora through the creation of ‘no-mow’ areas in the churchyard.
“We are also proposing to fit swift boxes into the tower, hopefully with the facility to watch these via cameras and Wi-Fi.”
This hard work and planning has borne fruit. ‘Eaton InSpired’ was awarded a £250,000 NLHF grant, and the restoration work is now underway.
“This grant makes all the difference to securing our beautiful historic church for the future and ensuring its removal from the Heritage at Risk Register,” says Revd Sue. “We can now start the restoration project, and we are delighted that The National Lottery Heritage Fund, thanks to money raised by National Lottery players, have agreed to support us so generously.”
The fundraising work is not over for Revd Sue and the Eaton InSpired team. “The overall project costs are in the region of £390,000 and so grant applications are ongoing for the remaining £75,000 still to be raised,” explains Revd Sue. “Some of the larger funding bodies require that 50% of the project budget is in place before they will consider a grant, so we are hopeful now of being awarded the monies needed to complete the project over the next 18 months.
“Local fund-raising is also ongoing. It is a massive challenge and there is still a huge amount of work to be done, however it will be wonderful to see St Denys church restored, safe and user-friendly for future generations to use and enjoy.”
About The National Lottery Heritage Fund
Our vision is for heritage to be valued, cared for and sustained for everyone, now and in the future. That’s why as the largest funder for the UK’s heritage we are dedicated to supporting projects that connect people and communities to heritage, as set out in our strategic plan, Heritage 2033. Heritage can be anything from the past that people value and want to pass on to future generations. We believe in the power of heritage to ignite the imagination, offer joy and inspiration, and to build pride in place and connection to the past.
Over the next 10 years, we aim to invest £3.6billion raised for good causes by National Lottery players to make a decisive difference for people, places and communities.
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