Welcome to Cornwall Historic Churches Trust

About Us

CHCT’s essential task is to support the historic fabric of religious buildings throughout the Duchy. Parishes can apply to us for funds which will go towards the restoration and repairs of Cornish churches.
Read more here

Grants

We offer grants, primarily for fabric repairs, to Cornish churches of all denominations which are used as places of worship. Unfortunately we cannot help closed churches or chapels. In February 2023 we launched Grants for a Hostile Climate: Maintenance and Kickstart Scheme which will continue into 2024. Jill Hore from Par PCC writes "We do hope that other churches seize the opportunity to apply, as – like us in Par – the church congregation no longer feels safe climbing on long ladders in order to clear gutters as part of the routine maintenance each year."
Read more here.

 

 

 

CHURCH OF THE MONTH
 St Ervan

This delightful small church lies on the steep bank of a peaceful valley just outside the peaceful hamlet of Rumford. Originally dating from 13th Century St  Ervan is a rare example of a Cornish cruciform church, with chancel and nave not aligned, reputedly representing the broken body of Christ on the cross. Of significant interest are the many fine slate carved tombstones that now decorate the interior walls. The Church is synonymous with Betjeman, being featured in Betjeman’s Autobiography, Summoned by Bells, his visit to the church being pivotal in his life.
In 1885 the tower, falling down, was blown up. The tower, roof, chancel and transeptal arches were all rebuilt keeping the original character. The upper stages of the unbuttressed tower was rebuilt in reinforced concrete in 1955. It was given a pyramidal roof, with the original west window re-set.
In March CHCT was pleased to award a grant of £2,000 towards repointing and masonry repairs.
For more information see our church history page here

GET INVOLVED

Beating the bounds at Ladock

Why your support is essential

To enable us to offer the invaluable assistance for the preservation of our Cornish heritage, we need every church in the Duchy to support and work with us so that we can be there for all in times of need.

To support more projects, we need more funds and your community can help. If each of our 218 parishes could fundraise just £100 a year for CHCT we would have in excess of £20,000 additional funding to offer annually.  Find out more here.

Cornwall Churches Day

Our main fundraising event is Cornwall Churches Day which can be held at any time during the year. We hope all parishes will get involved and raise some essential funds for both themselves and CHCT.
Find out more here.

£200 was raised for CHCT and the same for Veryan church.
A celebration of cupcakes!

Next CHCT Event

Next Community Event

Recent Fundraising

Thanks to all who attended our Garden Open Day at Werrington Park in May and Tom and Fia Williams for generously hosting us we raised £2,500
Thanks to our sponsors Taylor Money Wealth Management and Jonathan Cunliffe and all who helped on the night our Christmas Drinks Party at Boconnoc on 16th December 2024 raised just shy of £5,000. More information here
A huge thank you to all the communities who raise funds for us. Your support really does make a difference and together we can help to keep Cornish churches & chapels open for future generations.
See recent fundraising results here.

EXPLORE CORNISH CHURCHES

St Winnow, Lostwithiel PL22 0LF

Church Histories

Over the years, CHCT has been encouraging individual parishes to write a local history of their church. This is a short, informative piece and is written by the local parish with the help of our historian and archivist.

Is your local church missing from the archive? Full details of how to send us your information are included in the archive here.

Arches in the Decorated Style

Reading Cornish Churches

Thanks to Joanna Mattingly, we have been privileged to be addressed by renowned experts on different stages of church architectural development. We have worked through the Romanesque, Early English, Decorated and Perpendicular periods. We have records of the lecture notes from each talk which you can view here.

Visit an interesting selection of churches on a guided drive

Drive About Tours

The annual driveabouts are created by Carole Vivian as a way of discovering 3-4 churches in a day. She writes about the history of the buildings and features to look out for and directs you from one church to another with suggestions for good places to stop for lunch en route. Trails from previous years are available for a donation of £5. Find out more here.

We are very greatful for the ongoing support of Scott & Co.
sponsors of this website.