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.
Read more here.

 

CHURCH OF THE MONTH

The Church of our Lady and St Not, Liskeard

The Church of our Lady and St Neot in the centre of Liskeard is the oldest Catholic church in the area and considered to be the mother church of a large part of Cornwall. A Catholic centre was established on the site just after the 1829 Catholic Emancipation Act, when a French priest, Fr Marc Oleron arrived in Cornwall and travelled through the county, linking Catholic families. The present building dates from 1863 to accommodate an influx of Irish miners during the mining boom, the original building being retained as a small hall alongside.  It is in Early English style and is the design of Joseph Hansom, of Hansom Cab fame. Built of slate from the Ladyparke Quarry, with granite lower course and carved sandstone arch and corbels surrounding the main entrance door, the Church has some Victorian stained glass windows, including a fine image of St Joseph and others by Franze Mayer, the stained glass artist to the Holy See, that relates to the early days of the mission. Within the entrance porch, the Holy Water Stoup has a most unusual design: the front is a face with a water spout and it is claimed in the 1889 edition of Kelly’s Directory, that it originated from the Holy Well at St Cleer.

CHCT recently donated £2,000 for essential repairs to slate work adjacent to a main road to stop water seepage and damp; also to stabilise a stone cross.

 

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

Cornwall Historic Churches Trust

Annual Meeting

The Annual Meeting takes place on 23rd September at 2.30 pm at St Crida Church, Creed TR2 4SL.

The Speaker will be Nigel Saul who will give a talk on the Perpendicular period in particular the lack of tombs. Tea will be served after the meeting at a cost of £5.00 per head, payable on the day thanks to Grampound with Creed PCC. If you would like to join us, please complete, and return the slip here. No tickets will be issued. If you have any questions please contact our Honorary Secretary, Chrissie Hogg, 01326 565021 or email

Summer Fundraising

WIN LUNCH FOR TWO at The Nare Hotel on the Quarter Deck! Rather than hold a summer party to raise sorely needed funds this year, the CHCT has come up with an idea to raise some cash, to spread the word about our work, and to recruit new members. click here to find out more

Next Community Event

Cornwall Historic Churches Trust

We do not have any details of community fundraising events at the moment but will post them here as soon as they come in.

Recent Fundraising

Savills have sponsored the Christmas Party since its inception in 2006 and continued their support despite us having to cancel the event in 2020, like all others, due to Covid. Our heartfelt thanks to them and also to all those who responded to the "non-invitation" with donations totalling in excess of £4,000. Thank you one and all.

A huge thank you to all the communities who raised funds for us last year. 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

Over the past three years, thanks to Joanna Mattingly, we have been privileged to be addressed by renowned experts on different stages of church architectural development. To date we have worked through the Romanesque, Early English and Decorated periods. In 2021 we hope to move on to Perpendicular period. 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.