Suffolk is one of England’s driest counties, but it still rains – and quite heavily at times. When our Church architect made his 5-yearly inspection in 2022, he told us that the porch roof was leaking, and quite badly. Of course, we knew this already, but with the passage of time, the problem was worsening. The architect also advised us that fairly urgent works were needed for some of the sub-surface drainage around the building, which had begun to collapse, and this further threatened the structure of the building. A subsequent visit by Historic England placed our lovely medieval Grade I Listed Building on their ‘At Risk’ register. This sounded like bad news, but it possibly came with a silver lining: the ‘at-risk’ status may help us to secure grant aid towards rectifying the problems. Bedingfield is a small village community with an even smaller regular congregation, but eventually, by generous donations and our own fundraising events, we were able to provide the additional funding required to successfully obtain a substantial grant from Suffolk Historic Churches Trust (SHCT), which arrived in 2025. In addition to providing the grant, the Trust was most helpful in giving expert advice on how to go about financing the whole project, for which we are most grateful. In the Autumn of 2025, our contractors moved in, and most of the work was completed by the end of November. While the porch is now lovely and dry, there is still much other work to be done to keep our historic building in good order – any donations towards this will be more than welcome! Please use the Contact Us facility on this website if you are willing and able to assist us. Alternatively, phone either of our Church Wardens, Mrs Jean Housley on 01728 628427, or Mrs Sue Jacques on 01728 627922. Thank you.
