Welcome to the website of the National Churches Trust.
Our mission is to promote a culture that recognises and supports church buildings of historic, architectural and community value. If you have an interest in churches, we hope you will find something useful here.

Ride + Stride 2010
Ride + Stride 2010 takes place on Saturday 11th September 2010.

From Northumberland to Cornwall, Ride + Stride is one of the most popular fundraising events in the country, helping restore and protect historic churches across the UK.

To take part, simply visit the Ride + Stride website and follow the instructions.

National Churches Trust Survey 2010

The Survey has now closed to allow us to analyse the many responses we received. We would like to thank all who participated and look forward to sharing our findings with you later in the year.

Save the Refund!
The Listed Places of Worship Grant Scheme enables listed places of worship to claim back the VAT (currently 17.5%) on all repair and maintenance costs to the building. The scheme has brought great benefits to our historic places of worship since it was introduced nine years ago, but is currently due to expire in March 2011.

Please join the campaign to save the refund, and encourage others to do so, by visiting the website http://www.savetherefund.info and by writing to your MP. An e-petition to the Prime Minister is also backing the refund – the No 10 e-petitions system is currently suspended, but keep checking back for updates at http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/VAT-refundscheme.

For more information about reclaiming VAT through the Listed Places of Worship Grant Scheme, please click on the following link: www.lpwscheme.org.uk

Concert at St Gabriel’s Church, Warwick Square, 6th September
On Monday 6th September the Heritage of London Trust will be giving a concert at St Gabriel’s,Warwick Square to launch the first ever sponsored event for historic churches in London, which will take place on 11th September.

Please click for more information

Manifesto for Historic Places of Worship
Places of Worship @ The Heritage Alliance (POWAlliance), which brings together organisations with an interest in the future of historic places of worship, launched its manifesto on 4th March at St Gabriel's Church, Pimlico.

The manifesto highlights the importance of places of worship and what steps can be taken to support them. It will enable those who care about and for church buildings to highlight the issues affecting places of worship to parliamentary candidates in the run-up to the General Election. Click here for a pdf of the manifesto – please feel free to download and distribute as widely as possible. Print double-sided and fold it into 3 for hard copy presentation.

POWAlliance, which provides a national forum for liaison and communications and enables a range of organisations to campaign on issues of common concern, is funded by the National Churches Trust.

Faith in Maintenance Rewarded
The SPAB's Faith in Maintenance project has been honoured with a European Union Prize for Cultural Heritage / Europa Nostra Award 2010. The Award will be presented at the Annual Congress in Istanbul in June where. Please click here for the press release from Europa Nostra.

Faith in Maintenance is an initiative which aims to help volunteers who look after historic places of worship. They provide training and accessible information on what to look out for and how to solve problems. Free advice is available from their website http://www.spabfim.org.uk

Prizes for faith community projects
The Innovation in Faith-based Social Action Prize – to be formally opened in summer 2010 – aims to reward innovation in faith-based service delivery.

The total value of the prize fund is £50,000. This includes a top prize of £15,000 for the most innovative social action project and three runners up prizes of £5000. It will make awards in five different categories:

• independent projects (those not already receiving public funding)
• projects delivered with funding support from a local authority
• advocacy and community development projects
• multi faith projects
• youth projects

There will also be four prizes of £1000 for the best examples in each of the five different categories. Projects can nominate themselves or be nominated by others. Your expression of interest should be sent to InnovationPrize@communities.gsi.gov.uk. Visit the Communities and Local Government website for more information.