As a charity, we are now in dialogue with fundraising bodies for assistance with the initial capital restoration phase. The second stage will be an ongoing / operational stage, to support the financial upkeep of the remaining building. This will be financed by the café, the shop and the rentable space. 

 

In November and December 2025, we had a number of meetings with the National Lottery Heritage Fund (NLHF), following our submission of an Expression of Interest to them. Dialogue with NLHF has gone to the highest levels and they have said that we’re approaching the project in absolutely the right way, that our meetings with them were really useful and they described our work as ‘refreshing’ in terms of looking at a church building in a properly meaningful and sustainable way. NLHF have said that they are interested in our going ahead and developing our plans (particularly regarding costing and timing) because it has merit as being a place of worship (one of their strategic priorities) together with the sustainability around it. We plan to work further with NLHF to be able to engage in their funding application process, providing that we are granted more time to do so by Chelmsford Diocese. 

 

Prior to this in October 2025, we also met with Historic England. We presented our work with them to date and conducted an exterior site visit with them. They are keen to support us and look forward to hearing more on our developments with NLHF funding. 

 

In February 2026, Chelmsford Diocese agreed to contribute £300,000 (about 10%) of the project’s estimated cost, at just over £3,000,000. The diocesan contribution is on condition that we are successful in securing National Lottery Heritage Fund (NLHF) grant money. This is vital because the NLHF will require us to match fund a minimum of 10% of the total HLHF grant amount. So this is really great news! 

 

More information and updates on our fundraising developments and status will appear here with time.