Success! The National Lottery Heritage Fund has supported our Development Phase.

We are delighted to announce that the application for the Development Phase to The National Lottery Heritage Fund for our project has been successful! The award of £33,274 for the development of our project “Forncett – a Village of Stories : The Restoration of St Peter’s Church” represents approximately 70% of the total expenditure of £47,740 for this phase. This wonderful news means that in 2023 we will be able to undertake the next stage of Development work which will allow for more detailed evaluation of the requirements to remove the church from the Heritage at Risk Register and as a result to make the building watertight, safe and secure. The Development Phase will also therefore include fabric investigations and the production of a full and costed works specification. Also critical to the Development Phase is our continued consultation with the local community in order to help shape the project Activity Plan, which will detail a range of new public engagement activities and a new interpretive scheme to be delivered at the church.  

We are tremendously grateful to the Heritage Fund and to players of the National Lottery for making this possible.  We will now continue to raise the partnership funding for this year’s work which will be in the region of £14,500. This is already planned through VAT recovery, applying for grants from other bodies including £3,000 pledged by the Round Tower Churches Society, and money raised by the Friends of St Peters through their hard work and the generosity of the community. The next big milestone will be our Delivery Phase application, which should be before the end of 2023, when we will be asking the Heritage Fund for a further grant in the region of £526,000 towards the actual repairs and activities.  Formal discussions have now begun with the Heritage Fund with the ‘Start up’ meeting happening this month. We will give further updates as work proceeds.

Our architect, Ruth Blackman, will now be able to understand more of the problems affecting the building as shown on this drawing of repairs needed to the East wall of the Chancel. Drawing Thanks to Ruth Blackman.

January 2023