St Mary’s Church in Wymeswold has been awarded a grant of £227,314 by the National Lottery Heritage Fund (NLHF) to fund repairs to its nave roof and support a community heritage project that will welcome more people into the church and celebrate the village’s ‘faith history’.
A community-wide project and ecumenical effort, the bid was prepared in partnership with the Wolds Historical Organisation, the Wymeswold Church Appeal Fund, and Wymeswold Methodist Church.
The project has been named, ‘Preserving A.W Pugin’s Church: St Mary’s Wymeswold Roof Repairs & Community Heritage Stories’, referencing the famous architect, A.W Pugin, who restored the medieval church in 1844-46 under Revd Henry Alford (who later became Dean of Canterbury Cathedral).
In 2022, dry rot was discovered in the nave roof and eradicated. A year later, more dry rot was found, and it was clear the whole nave needed restoration.
The church has now commissioned Ackroyd Construction of Nottingham to carry out the work, under the supervision of architect, Mark Stewart.
The church and community have high aspirations for the project. Elizabeth Tingle, a member of the project team and St Mary’s PCC, says: “We want to put the church more firmly on the heritage map and to increase its use by the local community.”
Their first goal is to secure the good condition of the grade 1 listed church building, as an important historic monument.
“The church lies at the visual heart of the village and is a statement in stone of the community’s faith heritage,” says Elizabeth.
They also want to open the church more regularly, stewarded by volunteers, to welcome visitors and local people. As part of this, they are preparing displays and guides for adults and children to encourage them to explore St Mary’s.
Thirdly, the team hopes to create a faith history of the village through stories of its residents, past and present, in words, pictures and sound.
“The message we want to give is one of unity within diversity, celebrating St Mary’s history and relationship with other churches and faiths within the same village,” explains Elizabeth.
“Above all, we want to bring people together in and around St Mary’s, to worship, to enjoy arts and heritage events, and for a tranquil space.
“We believe that the church’s mission in the community is best achieved by welcoming presence, enjoyable activities, and a sense of faithful continuity over time, supported by prayer.”
The project is still in its early stages. Volunteers have been researching and writing heritage guides for the church and are working on a website project to share the work with the wider community.
St Mary’s celebrated the Victorian church builders with a themed Christmas Mince Pie and Christmas Tree morning, which was well attended by villagers, and are about to commence recruiting and training volunteer church welcomers and helpers to create Wymeswold stories.
They also have music, art and heritage events planned across the Spring and Summer.
If you would like to follow the project and attend their events, see Facebook: St Mary’s Church, Wymeswold, Heritage Project
‘Preserving A.W. Pugin’s Church: St Mary’s, Wymeswold Roof Repairs and Community Heritage Stories’ is made possible with The National Lottery Heritage Fund. Thanks to National Lottery players, St Mary’s are able to repair their church roof and work with volunteers to tell Wymeswold stories.