The Warner Bequest grant application was submitted hot on the heals of a competitive tender process managed by the Church Architect.The award of £3,000 puts the total so far committed to just over 20% of the total net cost.Hopefully we will have received sufficient grants and committed funds to decide (probably in July or August) to proceed this year.Due to at least 6 species the bats in the church, the work can only be done in late summer / early autumn.Our bat specialist will be dealing with a bat survey in the summer, and then getting the license so work can progress.
The chancel needs the re-tile of its roof, as the existing tiles are flaking and are near the end of their life.Oxfordshire Historic Churches Trust (OHCT) has awarded a grant of £6,000, which puts us already over 10% of the way towards the grand total of c £61,600.In December 2023 our church architect did his 5-year inspection of Holy Trinity Church. He identified some urgent work to the chancel roof at its east end. He also identified the need to re-tile the roof, as the existing tiles are flaking and are near the end of their life.In April 2024 the work at the east end of the chancel roof was completed. While the scaffolding was up, our architect was able to take a close look at the roof.Our church is the only Grade One Listed church in the area. This means it is “special in a national context”. It also means that repairs come under close scrutiny by the Diocese, which is responsible for approving such work. To get the Diocese’s approval, we needed our church architect to draw up a full specification, which he has done. The Diocese granted List B faculty approval in December 2024.A grant application to Oxfordshire Historic Church Trust (OHCT) was submitted for their mid-February meeting. OHCT are an “anchor funder”, so a successful grant application encourages other grant-making bodies to provide grants. The work requires an environmental licence, due to the 6 species of bats in the church. This is being dealt with by the bat specialist, who was involved in the North Aisle works. We would need to have a bat survey done in Summer 2025; this is already scheduled.The presence of bats is a constraint which means that the work can only be done in late summer / early autumn.Hopefully we will have received sufficient grants to decide (probably in July or August) to proceed this year, otherwise we would have to await the following late summer / autumn of 2026.
