St Sampson’s Church Window Restoration
Thirteen is a good number for St Sampson’s Church, South Hill. All thirteen windows have been restored to their prime with the help of thirteen grant funders and three individuals. A grand total of £53,000, of which CHCT granted £3,000 in October 2020 to help get the ball rolling.
Our funding research took us in all directions and we made some fascinating discoveries. Many pleasant hours were spent wading through family trees and church records. We discovered connections all around the world, as well as a short distance down the road.
The chancel (south) window is dedicated to Major Percy John Rice (1810-1850) and Lucy Maria Elton (nee Rice) (1814- 1846), brother and sister of the then Rector of South Hill, Revd. Horace Rice. The inscription contains the words “Ah my brother! Ah my sister!” Lucy Maria was the great, great, Grandmother of Julia Rice Elton, who we traced. She was unaware of her family window but delighted to discover it. click here to find out more
CHCT grants awarded top £1 million
At the September 2023 Grants Meeting the Committee awarded grants to all seven churches that had applied for projects ranging from repairs to bells, damaged polyphant stonework and maintenance to make buildings watertight.
Since March 2007 a total of 296 grants have been made, totalling £1,006,645, from Cornwall Historic Churches Trust funds, with funds provided to the Cornwall Historic Churches Trust by The Duke of Cornwall’s Benevolent Fund, The Cornwall Heritage Trust and Partnership Grants made by the National Churches Trust on the recommendation of the Cornwall Historic Churches Trust.
A limited number of £500 maintenance grants or “kickstart” grants for assistance with initial assessment costs for major projects are still available for distribution this year. Churches and chapels of any denomination can apply. For full details see our grants page.
Marazion Meeting House Reopens
The Marazion Quakers held an Open Day on 2nd July 2022 to celebrate completion of the long and complex process of restoring their three-hundred-year-old Meeting House, the oldest public building in Marazion.
We were delighted to join the Friends to view the result for which the CHCT awarded a grant of £4,000 towards the new roof and air source heat pump underfloor heating system in June 2021.
Additional work was required when it was discovered that the floor joists were rotten and the wooden floor has been replaced with hemlock pine boards made from salvaged beams. The result is magnificent!
A short history of the Marazion Meeting House can be found here.
Community Fundraising
2023
Powder
Ladock – Concert – £250
East Wivelshire
St Dominick – Coffee Morning – £150
Maker with Rame – sponsored Bicycle Ride – £330
2022
East Wivelshire
Landrake with St Erney – Open Churches Day – £37.50
Maker with Rame – sponsored Bicycle Ride – £250
Powder
St Cuby – Afternoon Tea for the CHCT Friends’ Outing – £55
Trigg Minor and Bodmin
St Julitta Lanteglos-by-Camelford – Afternoon Tea at the CHCT Annual Meeting – £100
West Wivelshire
St Neot – Midsummer Event £500
St Neot Midsummer Event
A thoroughly enjoyable evening was enjoyed by 120 people at Trevenna, St Neot celebrating Midsummer and raising the magnificent sum of £2,500 for church funds. CHCT is immensely grateful to the PCC for donating £500 of this to us. Thanks are due to PCC member Jonathan Rowe for allowing St Neot Church to use his wedding venue, Trevenna, Mandy and all the staff at Trevenna plus all the community volunteers who dressed the marquee, set up the games, entertainment and music.
Going to Church in Medieval Cornwall
Friends assembled at St Julitta’s at Lanteglos-by-Camelford for our Annual Meeting on 25th May 2022 and were privileged to be addressed by Canon Professor Nicolas Orme, Emeritus Professor of History at the University of Exeter on the subject “Going to Church in Medieval Cornwall”. His illuminating talk made all those attending wiser and is best summed up by a remark overheard afterwards “We would have flocked to lectures at university if Nicholas Orme had been teaching us.” For those who missed it his book “Going to Church in Medieval England” is available and has been shortlisted for various prizes.
Afterwards we were treated to a sumptious tea which raised £200 split between the PCC and the CHCT as St Julitta’s Cornwall Churches Day event for this year.
Pop-up stalls at St Mary’s Biscovey and Good Shepherd Church, Par
St Mary’s, dressed in her new grey granite tower and reddish Biscovey stone body!
Jill Hore, Churchwarden, writes “We haven’t done anything remarkable in fund raising this year, but once lockdown restrictions were lifted we did manage to hold 3 POP UP stalls outside the Good Shepherd Church in Par, selling home grown plants with an additional stall of homemade cakes, pies, and preserves.”
Being opposite the Post Office, we had enthusiastic customers throughout the first morning’s event, – who were as eager as we were to get out, meet people and have a chat about being under lockdown restrictions, that we decided to do it again! And again! Our “green fingered” member had so many bedding plants and perennials thriving in her polytunnel and garden, that it was an obvious event to arrange.
Next CHCT Event
CHRISTMAS PARTY
buy tickets.at/cornwallhistoricchurchestrust
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
Let us know and we’ll advertise it here.