St Mary the Virgin, Syde, is a Grade 1 listed Norman church that has stood in the centre of the village for many hundreds of years, and probably replaced a Saxon church that was here a thousand years ago. Our last quinquennial report in 2021 stated: The condition of St Mary’s church remains good and on the whole has benefited from repairs arranged directly by the PCC. However, the condition of stone slate roof coverings continues to deteriorate and it is strongly recommended that a programme of appropriately specified renewal of roof coverings is commenced as soon as possible. This prompted the PCC to embark on a series of fund-raising endeavours to enable us to keep our church watertight for the benefit of our village, our loyal current congregation and future ones. St. Mary’s church in Syde is an important building to many people, both in the village and beyond, and even though Syde is a tiny village of only 15 households, we managed to raise just over £50,000 ourselves, and are extremely grateful to everyone who contributed, financially and practically. We held many community events in order to raise funds, including cake sales, art exhibitions, and concerts. However, we needed a grand total of £150,000 to complete the necessary renovations and thus also sought grants from charitable organisations. We are indebted to the following bodies for enabling us to bridge the funding gap: National Lottery Heritage Fund, Garfield Weston Foundation, Gloucestershire Historic Churches Trust, Enovert Community Trust, Benefact Trust, Lasletts Hinton Charity and Warneford Ecclesiastical Charity.

We sought competitive quotes for architectural services in 2023 and eventually awarded the contract to David Newton Associates. We invited 3 roofing contractors to tender for the refurbishment of the roof and awarded the contract to G Dowdswell and Sons - Roofing Contractors. We were ready to start work in early 2025 but needed to wait until roosting bats and nesting barn owls would not be disturbed. Our chosen contactor started work in early September and scaffolding was soon erected on the North side of the church. Tiles were first removed from the Nave, and those suitable for later reuse on the porch roof, stored. Removal of the tiles exposed the supporting timbers and, fortunately, none needed to be replaced but most needed some degree of repair (see photo gallery). New felting was installed along with new battens for the tiles to be fixed to. New Cotswold stone tiles were supplied and installed on the whole of the North face. A similar procedure was used for the North face of the Chancel and porch except that suitable reused tiles were installed on the porch roof. This work was completed by early December.

We were advised that the tiles on the Vestry would need to be replaced “in the foreseeable future” and, as we hadn’t used all of our contingency fund, we decided to replace them with new tiles now whilst the contractor was still on site. This work was undertaken in January 2026.

St. Mary’s church is open for visitors 24 hours a day, and often visited by walkers: we managed to keep the church open for the whole duration of the work and our regular pattern of weekly services was uninterrupted. The PCC and our architect are delighted that the whole project has gone so well. The new roof looks very smart, and is a visible sign of how well this tiny church is loved and looked after by the local community.  [email protected] Thank you to everyone who has contributed to our project!