Churches are built to last. The bricklayers, the lime-washers and the carpenters of centuries past knew what they were doing, and they built structures that were strong and sturdy.

But left unloved, even these well-built monuments can start to show their age, and this was particularly true of four of our churches back in 2024. Roofs were beginning to fail, the stonework was letting in water and precious interiors were being ravaged by the elements.

By the time a church reaches that point, the work needed to save it is often complex, specialist and expensive. It takes skilled craftspeople, careful conservation and, above all, money.

So we asked for your help.

And you were there. Together, our members, donors and supporters raised £500,000 to help rescue four churches across England and Wales. Then, thanks to the extraordinary generosity of an anonymous donor, every pound was doubled, giving us £1 million to put towards their rescue, repair and restoration.

With your support, we were able to convene a group of stonemasons, conservation specialists, roofers, and other specialist craftspeople into these buildings. It saved roofs, walls and interiors, protecting centuries of craftsmanship.

These four churches were at risk of being lost. Now they stand proud once more.

Thank you. Scroll down to see what you helped make possible — and, if you can, help us do it again for two churches that now need us.

The Finest Georgian Church in Wales

Over the course of 2025, we sensitively restored St Deiniol’s, Worthenbury. The church is a picture of stately elegance, with finely-jointed brickwork, sandstone dressings and classical proportions. However, St Deiniol’s sadly closed in 2023 after almost 300 years of serving its community. In 2024, this elegant 18th-century church was transferred into our care, and we began our programme of repairs soon after.

The most noticeable aspect of our recent restorative works is the general appearance of the interior. Using paint analysis, we identified the original Georgian decorative scheme and reinstated it. By restoring the internal walls of the church to their original buff stone colour and complementing this with a sympathetic palate for the ceiling and cornices, we hope St Deiniol’s can now be enjoyed as it was originally intended.

Externally, the repairs mainly concentrated on high-level masonry, the removal of concrete elements and plant growth, and localised repointing of the precise Georgian brickwork. These external repairs have resolved the issues that St Deiniol’s faced in terms of water ingress and damp, thereby protecting its well-preserved Georgian interior for future generations.

St Deniol’s, Worthenbury before repairs →

An unusual North-Walian pre-Oxford Movement church

In 2023, our Trustees walked through the door of St Doged’s in Llanddoged and immediately they knew that we had to save this historically significant church. The church had closed for regular worship five years earlier and was unsuccessfully trialled as a ‘Pilgrim Church’ by the Church in Wales. When the church came into our care in 2024, it was sadly suffering from significant water ingress and dampness, leaving the interior woodwork and painted canvases at risk of deterioration and decay.

Our specialist contractors immediately got to work on fixing the slate roof, repointing the external walls, reinstalling the roof-light, redecorating the interior, and conserving the woodwork. The final step in the project was the conservation of the two painted canvases that hang above the pulpit. ICON-accredited painting conservator Annabelle Monaghan painstakingly conserved these. Now the church is open again for visitors and can play a role in the local community, at the heart of which it sits.

A largely unchanged medieval church

Having closed for regular worship in 2023, St Twrog’s church in Bodwrog was suffering, with green walls and rotting wooden fittings. Ineffective drainage and impervious pointing and plaster, combined with the church’s exposed position in the landscape, created intensely damp conditions internally. Therefore, the most significant challenge with this repair project was addressing this 15th-century church’s persistent damp issue.

To resolve these issues and ensure that the church could survive for future generations, our contractors repaired the roof, overhauled the rainwater goods, and repointed the walls in lime mortar. They also repaired the stone mullions and cills to the windows, and mended the badly rotten timber floors, panelling, and pews. The interior of the church was replastered with air lime mortars and given a fresh coat of limewash, making for a stunning transformation of this peaceful little church.

For more than a decade, this curious neo-Romanesque church was sadly languishing on the side of the A10, it was forgotten by most passersby and falling into a state of disrepair. This precious building would have been sold for private, domestic conversion if we didn’t step in and offer an alternative future. However, due to its long period of neglect, St Andrew’s required the most extensive repair project of the four churches. The roofs were leaking, the drains were clogged, the vaults were collapsing, the stonework was fractured and the render was peeling.

We took this Norfolk church into our care in 2023 and so began a repair project that more or less the cost the same as the other three churches combined. This enormous project required the foundations of the church to be stabilised, extensive high level masonry repairs, the overhauling of the rainwater goods, and decorations inside and out. Because of the project’s scale, the repairs took nearly two years after we first started work on the church. As well as protecting these buildings for future generations, these repair projects also allow us to give employment to builders, craftspeople and conservators who keep precious and endangered craft skills alive.

St Andrew’s, South Runcton before repairs →

Hope for a fine country estate church.

For St Tyfi’s, Llandyfeisant the past 65 years has been chequered, with some highs, but a lot of lows. Now, in 2026, this church is officially designated as ‘At Risk’, however, we are determined to save it.

Located in Dinefwr in Carmarthenshire, St Tyfi’s church closed in 1961, its font and stained-glass window war memorial were removed and placed inside St Teilo’s church in nearby Llandeilo for safekeeping. Since the 1980s, the church has been lingering in a state of near dereliction and, despite briefly being used as an information centre and shop, its future continued to be uncertain.

For several decades, St Tyfi’s has been supported by an indefatigable group of four local men, however, the repair needs are mounting and their hope of being able organise and finance the repairs is moving ever further out of reach. The church is suffering from severe decay of the roof timbers, invasive vegetation and defective drainage. But the insistent cheerfulness of the bunting strung from the wall plates has for us become a symbol defiance. We want to work with this local group and take the church into our ownership to repair it and make it safe for people to use and enjoy for decades to come.

One of England’s most endangered Victorian buildings

Located deep in the Lincolnshire countryside, St Helen’s is a truly wonderful example of a 19th-century Gothic Revival church, with a domineering pinnacle-peppered spire and a gloriously glowing east window. However, due to a long period of neglect, the fabric of the church has reached a state of serious decay. The ceilings are collapsing, there are significant water ingresses, the external render has cracked and blown, and the chancel arch is suffering from structural movement.

The village of Biscathorpe disappeared centuries ago and, therefore, with no immediate local community to support the building, if we can’t step in to save this gem of a Gothic Revival church, then it will continue to decay and become derelict. But we can only do that with your generous support.