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

Truro Cathedral, St Mary's Aisle

The building of Truro cathedral started in 1880. It is a fine example of neo-Gothic architecture, with an unusual three spires, and is open free of charge to the public 365 days a year. It is the only cathedral in England with a parish church within it – St Mary’s - dating from 1768 and the original building on this site. Now known as St Mary’s Aisle, it is an inspiring place, with a full collection of significant William Warrington stained glass dating from the 1840s and a wonderful ceiling featuring commemorative bosses. St Mary’s Aisle is one of the most important spaces in the cathedral for holding weddings, civic events and community activities, but on rainy days, the roof now leaks prolifically.

The necessary works include renewal of the lead valley gutters; renewal of the Delabole slate roof covering to St Mary’s Aisle and the St Mary’s Aisle Clock Tower low level south gable roof; replacement of roof access ladders; repair of high level Bathstone stonework; and revision of rainwater drainage routes to alleviate frequent blockages. The CHCT awarded a grant of £4,000 towards this work at the September Grants Meeting.

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

Christmas Party 2021

We are planning to hold a Christmas Party this year – look out for full details coming soon

In the meantime why not take a virtual trip around some of Cornwall’s historic churches here or if you fancy a day out why not try one of our Drive About Trails.

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.