Churches Conservation Trust

Cover image of the report, text reads ‘Historic Environment Overview 2024-25, A report by the Historic Environment Overview’.

Today @histenvforum.bsky.social publishes the Historic Environment Overview 2024-25, celebrating the impact of England’s heritage sector in the last financial year. Produced with support from Historic England. Read the new report: historicengland.org.uk/research/her...
#Heritage #Resilience

Pictured are a selection of the craftspeople responsible for this outstanding project. (c) Cornish Building Group

We were thrilled to win an award for the project to repair North Hill, St Torneys last night at the Cornish Buildings Awards. This work has allowed us to open the church for the local community again. Thanks to the Cornish Building Group
and all the wonderful craftspeople involved! #Heritage

Close-up view of a red tile church roof in poor condition with several broken and slipped tiles opening up holes in the roof. A crenellated red brick church tower can be seen in the background. (c) Peter Hawkins

Five people posing for a photograph in front of a pointed church archway. All are smiling, a man on the left in blue shirt is sitting down, to his right stands a woman in blue dress, next to her a tall man in jeans and blue and yellow checkered jumper, to his right another woman in a blue dress almost identical to the first woman's dress and to her right stands a woman in a pink dress, with a white vest top. All have grey hair, except the woman on the far right, who has black hair.

Full view of St. Bartholomew's, Lower Basildon, a historich church with flint covered porch and nave, three tall nave windows, a crenellated red brick tower and a corrugated iron roof.

Great news! Thanks to your generosity, we've reached our fundraising goal for the 'Raise the roof' campaign at St. Bartholomew's, Lower Basildon! Thank you to everyone who donated. Work set to begin this year.
More info here: visitchurches.org.uk/what-we-do/n... #Conservation #berkshire

Community celebration at Croome, a long table with cake and flowers inside a historic church, surrounded by people in coats.

Our Conservation Projects Manager removing green microbiological growth from the floor of a church with a big brush.

Stained glass conservator Jim Budd installing a window with flemish roundels at St. Mary's Shrewsbury.

A group of volunteers on a sunny day in the churchyard at St. George's Portland

Did you know you can nominate CCT for the #MovementforGoodAwards?
Every year the Benefact Group gives away over £1 million to charities and good causes.
This is a great way for you to help us protect historic churches and keep them open for communities: movementforgood.com/index.php?cn...

Effigies of Sir George and Lady Frances, both propped up on their elbows in a "toothache" pose in Jacobean dress.

Recumbent, praying effigies of Sir Thomas St. Paul and Lady Faith in Tudor dress.

Monument detail looking like a decorated cake, painted with green, red and gold details.

A colourful relief monument showing Frances Wray and her second husband Robert Rich, Earl of Warwick in Jacobean dress.

Find out about the swift rise and demise of the St. Paul family in our June #monumentofthemonth blog about the amazingly colourful effigies at St. Lawrence's, Snarford, Lincolnshire: www.visitchurches.org.uk/what-we-do/b...
We've got zealous protestants, greedy husbands and clever wives!
#Tudor

A before and after image of St. Torney's, showing on the left a church overgrown with ivy before conservation work and on the right a church without ivy, cleaner and healthier looking than on the left, after conservation work.

We are thrilled to announce that St. Torney's Church, in the care of CCT, is shortlisted for the prestigious Cornish Buildings Group Award! Huge thanks to the wonderful craftspeople who worked to transform this #historicchurch. Learn more: visitchurches.org.uk/what-we-do/n... #Cornwall

You don't have to live in London to experience art, culture and #FamilyFun this summer! Find #concerts , theatre, markets, talks & family days at a #historic church near you and beat the heat thanks to #medieval masonry! Find events near you: visitchurches.org.uk/whats-on/eve... #summerevents

C12th Maltese consecration cross illuminated by a shaft of light that shows it is deeply incised into the plaster of the wall, red and yellow paint remnants remain. Image (c) Andy Marshall

Swirly border of a frame painted onto the walls of St. Thomas A Becket in red. Image (c) Andy Marshall

13th Century wall paintings clustered around a window at St. Thomas A Becket, Capel, Kent. We can see scenes from the story of Cain & Abel, decorative patterns and a scene with many people, possibly the last supper. Image (c) Andy Marshall

Decorative zig-zag wall painting pattern in red and yellow on white ground (medieval). Image (c) Andy Marshall

Time travel this #WallpaintingWednesday at St. Thomas a Becket, Capel, Kent! See C12th consecration crosses, rare C13th scenes of Cain & Abel, C15th and C16th religious texts, plus decorative details. Check out our website for more info: visitchurches.org.uk/visit/our-ch... #Kent #medieval #history

Wallpainting detail of St. Christopher carrying Baby Jesus on his shoulder. St. Christopher and the Christ Child both have flaming red hair and St. Christopher has a red beard. The Christ Child wears a green robe and blesses St. Christopher with his right hand, holding an orb in his left. (c) Andy Marshall

Wall painting of a mock reredos in red and yellow (c) Andy Marshall

Interior of Whitcombe church, a small single cell building, with whitewashed, partly exposed walls, a three light east or west window and dark wooden roof beams. Suspended from the ceiling are several white gas lamps in a neat row. (c) Andy Marshall

Close up of wall painting of mock reredos, imitating carved wood in red and yellow (c) Andy Marshall

This #WallpaintingWednesday take a look at Whitcombe Church, Dorset. This lovely church evokes the rustic atmosphere of old Dorset life and hosts colourful medieval wallpaintings that were uncovered during the restoration of the church in 1912. More info: www.visitchurches.org.uk/visit/our-ch...

Stained glass window at Low Ham church, mainly yellow glass, a sun panel at the top and beneath it three panels showing Mary, the cross and Jesus (c) Andrew Faulkner

Chancel arch at St. Margaret's, Knotting. The chancel arch is of two orders of bulbous chevron to the west and one plain one to the east. There are clear diagonal tool marks on most surfaces. The arches rest on imposts, the southern of which has been cut away, these in turn rest upon engaged columns with cushion capitals. A label runs around the arch.

Church interior of St. Mary's, Badley, a plain post-reformation church with whitewashed walls and pews with poppyheads.

Post-reformation wall paintings of Bible verses on the walls of All Saints, Leigh, Wiltshire

Join CCT for just £3.50/month & access amazing lectures like Anna Keay's May 2025 talk on "The Restless Republic"! Learn about Britain's 11-year republic & the lives of those who lived through it in our latest blog. Discover more: visitchurches.org.uk/what-we-do/b... #HistoryLovers

Thank you to @marshawards.bsky.social for your support! And of course our main thanks goes to all of our community supporters and volunteers. You are simply amazing and we’re lucky to have your support. #VolunteersWeek #VolunteersWeek2025

Pics 1) Team @ St Augustine Norwich 2) Team @ Vange

Lindsay inside the church

Tony outside the church

Selfie of Barry inside church.

Brenda with her craft set up inside 1719.

And we have our Volunteers of the Year for our different regions announced! Congratulations to Brenda Owens at 1719, Barry Wadeson in Northants and Tony &Lindsay Davies at Hartley Wintney, who are the winners of this years
@marshawards.bsky.social for Volunteer of the Year. #VolunteersWeek

The Friends of St. Benedict's Paddlesworth posing for a photo outside the church.

The @marshawards.bsky.social Volunteer Team of the Year is always hotly contested and this year the winners are the Friends of St Benedicts, Paddlesworth, congratulations! The team have organised an annual events programme including community walks, concerts &history talks. #VolunteersWeek

North Huish Team outside the church on a sunny day, posing for a photo, smiling

Part of the Lower Basildon team posing for a photo outside the front door of the church

Part of the Lower Basildon Team at a fundraising dinner, posing for a photo

What a delightful surprise, we have joint winners for the Fundraising
@marshawards.bsky.social : St Bartholomews, Lower Basildon and St Marys, North Huish are sharing the award. They both worked miracles to help raise funds, and the churches have a brighter future now. #VolunteersWeek

A powerpoint slide with light blue backdrop and a black and white image of two women gardening outside of St. Anthony's in the 1950s on the left alongside a dark blue box with black writing spelling "St. Anthony's then and now", and two pictures of the current volunteers, including a toddler, on the right.

We have just heard from Emma, one of our volunteers from St Anthonys in Cornwall. What a find to see the photo from the 1950s of volunteers back then looking after the church. The community has really taken it to heart and continues to do so. Thanks so much Emma. #VolunteersWeek

Victoria Simkin outside St. John's Chapel, Chichester

The winner of the Marsh Awards for Achieving Impact is Victoria Simkin from St John’s Chapel in Chichester! In early 2024, the Friends of St John’s Chapel faced possible dissolution, but Victoria helped to recruit 25 new event volunteers! #VolunteersWeek

The Wolfhampcote team posing for a picture inside the church

The winners of the Marsh Awards for Digital Initiative are The Friends of St Peters Wolfhamcote! Their strong digital presence has helped to raise the profile of the church, and they have recently recruited a social media volunteer and secured a new grant for a fundraising video. #VolunteersWeek

Poppy decorations and a nativity christmas tree quilt made by the Yarburgh team from craft supplies bought with the prize money

We are hearing from volunteers, and have been moved by the story of the Yarburgh Team, who won the Achieving Impact
Marsh Awards last year and spent it on craft supplies. It is clear how much the recognition has meant, and how much the team are able to do with the prize money. #VolunteersWeek

The winners of the new CCT Creativity Award have just been announced as Val Jones and Ray from St Martin’s Church, #Exeter! Congratulations! Through their work these two artists have brought visitors and life to St. Martin's. #VolunteersWeek

Photograph of Greg Pickup in a blue suit, smiling, standing in the doorway of a historic church.

Chief Executive Greg Pickup has given a quick overview of what the past year looked like for CCT. Going forward we will be focusing on conservation, community & creativity. Interested in joining CCT as a volunteer? Drop us a line on volunteering@thecct.org.uk #VolunteersWeek

Portrait of Inayat in front of a grey background

Inayat Omarji MBE, one of our board members and former volunteer, has just welcomed everybody to our online Community Supporter and Volunteer Evening. Did you know that we have over 2,000 volunteers and community supporters, who help us care for over 350 churches? #VolunteersWeek

We are getting ready to welcome our community supporters &volunteers, both new, and longstanding, for our Community Supporter & Volunteer Evening. We are delighted to be joined by Marsh Awards who sponsor the awards. #VolunteersWeek
Pics 1) Princetown Gardening &2) Halstead 3) Northampton Team

Close up of the altar frontal showing a loose cord.

Close up of Wendy, sitting over the altar frontal sewing the cord back into place.

Close up of Wendy's hands at work, sewing the cord into place. A golden pair of thread scissors in the shape of a bird rests on the altar frontal.

The altar frontal in place on the altar after successful restoration. The colours of the fabric are gold, cream and yellow and the central motif is a cross with two palm leaves.

The altar frontal at St Mary Magdalene's got a much-needed #makeover! Thanks to talented volunteer Wendy, some loose stitching is fixed, and it'll look amazing at the July 20th summer service. A big thank you to Wendy! Find out more about this church: www.visitchurches.org.uk/whats-on/mor...

Against a blue sky with pale white clouds, the pale stone tower of Cranford St Andrew stands out. There are no leaves on the trees to the left and the chuchyard grass is green with hints of snowdrops. There's a crenelated parapet, and some very prominent rain spouts. There's a round clock that's glinting in the sun above louvres. On the side of the tower facing the nave there's evidence of a past higher roof line. The church has a large porch and attractive rounded triangular windows along in a line above the more conventional window we can see at the right of the image.

Tower of the Day
Cranford St Andrew is under the care of the CCT, @visitchurches.bsky.social. There are 4 bells, but are unringable. They would be a ground floor ring. The tenor weighs about 360 kg, and has a large piece missing!😮‍ The bells date from between 1624 & 1718.
#Bells #BellRinging #Tower

A small stone-built Norman church with arched doorway to the nave and a tower. It is a sunny day and there are spring flowers by the door.

A close-up of the construction of the church nave wall showing narrow flat red brick tiles amongst the stonework.

I then explored nearby St Peter's Church in the care of @visitchurches.bsky.social where you can see Roman tiles have been reused in the external walls of the nave www.visitchurches.org.uk/visit/our-ch... #OutAndAboutArchaeology @archaeologyuk.bsky.social

Visit St. Martin's, Exeter for #CelebrateCCT Churches Week and Exeter's June Boom, between 8th and 15th June! Find out more here: www.visitchurches.org.uk/whats-on/exe...

#visitexeter #ExeterSights #VisitDevon #JUNEBOOM

Stained glass window at St. Michael and All Angels, Princetown showing 6 scenes from the bible, from left to right: Annunciation, Virgin and Child, Jesus performing miracles, Jesus and the children, Crucifixion, Ascension or Easter (c) Jen Bryant

Photograph of a sign at Croome estate with large silver text on black ground reading 'Welcome to Croome' and smaller silver text on black ground below this reading 'Expect the unexpected' underneath the text is a black and white photograph, above the text is a black line drawing of a WWII plane on silver ground. Behind the sign in the distance we can see St. Mary Magdalene church behind trees. (c) Tom Jones

A photograph of a sign set in a wooden frame engraved with text saying 'The Battle of Towton' with images and text relating to the battle underneath. In the background we can see St. Mary's lead under bright blue sky.

A beautiful carved wooden bird, bending it's neck back to preen it's feathers at St. Wilfrid's, Brougham (c) Andy Marshall

Read our blogpost this #VEDay80 if you want to find out, which churches overlook historic battlefields, where a rector and his family sheltered in the belfry during the English Civil War and which of our churches was next to an RAF radar test site in WWII: www.visitchurches.org.uk/what-we-do/b...

Churchyard at St. Mary's covered in snowdrops with a few wonky headstones (c) Maria Luisa Latorre

Wooden font cover with wrought iron detail at St. Mary's (c) Maria Luisa Latorre

St. Mary's sun-speckled porch with flint walls and slate roof (c) Maria Luisa Latorre

Stained glass window depicting possibly the evangelist John with an eagle, an open book in his lap and an angel bringing him Gods word (c) Maria Luisa Latorre

Before St Marys, Lambourn Woodlands was built in 1852, there was another church in the village, so poorly built that it fell apart after a few years. Read how gothic revivalist Talbot Bury was commissioned to fix a church built with 'mostly unburnt bricks' cdn.visitchurches.org.uk/uploads/imag...

Image of the cover of Anna Keay's book 'The Restless Republic' on the left and image of the author outside a historic church on the right (c) Anna Keay

Join us for an exclusive online members lecture on May 12th at 17:50 with historian Anna Keay, Director of the Landmark Trust.

We will explore Britain's unique republican era through the eyes of those who lived it.
Find out more and become a member today: visitchurches.org.uk/whats-on/dig...

Friends and conservators walking between the tall leaning gravestones in the churchyard on a bright, sunny day.

Friends and conservators engaged in conversation in the churchyard.

A gravestone being suspended from a metal beam, surrounded by other gravestones, some of them leaning significantly.

A member of the group standing next to a gravestone being suspended from a beam, wearing orange gloves.

The Friends of St Georges Portland are working with a local contractor to put the gravestones upright & rotate them. This way they are ensuring that the people who came together at this church before them are not forgotten.
Volunteer at a church near you: visitchurches.org.uk/get-involved...