Christ Church is part of a family of four churches who seek to experience and share the love and hope of Jesus. We have Sunday morning services most weeks, but once a month all four congregations worship together at one of our churches. Christ Church is an open, friendly church and we welcome you to our services, or to simply spend quiet time in our lovely space. Usual opening times are 10am to 4pm (3.30pm in winter). We have full disabled access to the building and a hearing induction loop.
The 420 pupils of the local primary school use the church for their end of term services, concerts, carol services and festivals. Teachers often use the church as a teaching space, and Open the Book and Collective Worship run by the church is a regular part of the school week. We have a morning toddler group and a weekday morning coffee and chat group.
Since 2021 we have been planning to make the Victorian building more functional as a venue for our church groups and outreach to our local community. We began with open meetings and consultations with our congregation, our next door primary school children and our local community, on which to base our plans to restore and make the building more functional for current and future use. Having obtained the relevant permissions from the Diocese of Salisbury to make the alterations, we began to raise the fund for this work. The sale of our old church hall (which itself needed extensive repairs for safety issues) gave us a starting fund, but did not cover the full cost, so we started fundraising and by the end of August 2025 we had raised enough (through donations, fundraising occasions and grants) to install an office for the Benefice Administrator, a storage cupboard for toddler group toys and materials, a small kitchen for preparing refreshments, and toilets (available when church is in use for services and booked events).
As many grant funders rule out grants for installing toilets but would fund building restoration work, we split the work into two projects, Discover Christ Church! and Future for Christ Church.
Discover Christ Church! Christ Church aims to become a thriving community hub for the people of Bradford on Avon that is fit for the 21st century. The funds for this community project to explore, restore and celebrate the heritage of this fine Victorian landmark building began on 17 April 2023. A big thank you to The National Lottery Heritage Fund for a grant of £239,761, together with generous contributions, donations and grants from the Bradford on Avon Preservation Trust and the Pilgrim Trust/Church Care, our community and Parochial Church Council, our own fund-raising events and members of our congregation. Bradford on Avon Town Council has awarded a £2,000 Environment Grant award towards improving the biodiversity of the churchyard. And huge thanks to all of Christ Church’s School’s Year 5 pupils whose ideas underpinned our application. The Community Outreach Officer and Project Coordinator for the Discover Christ Church! project began work on 17 April 2023 for a two-year period (with careful use of the funds, it has been possible for these activities to be extended into the end of 2025.
Discover Christ Church! Restoring and repairing the building: Restoring, regilding and restarting our landmark spire clock. # New energy efficient lighting in the church. # Repairs to the spire and tower. # Biodiversity work in the churchyard. # Conserving & cleaning the nave walls and rare wall paintings (our newly cleaned archangels look wonderful). Alongside the above, an 18-month programme of inter-generational and inclusive community activities was co-designed with young people. 'Open House' during restoration work, both in church and online, has enabled people to follow work in action. Celebration days had demonstrations by craft workers and information on progress. Conversation & Craft sessions in church has brought together primary school students and older people to make items such as bug houses, decorating plant pots and and making cards with silk paintings. (We hope to continue some of these in the future.) Enhancing the churchyard. The churchyard is much appreciated by the many passers-by who use the path through the churchyard every day as a short cut, as is the bench against the south wall. The young people surveyed the plants in the churchyard, designed a new bench for the churchyard, planted native snowdrops, daffodils and bluebells, and chose new planters for either side of the west door. Having allowed the grass to grow in 'no-mow' May for three years, three small areas of native early purple orchids have appeared; it is thought they were here when the churchyard was a pasture field. And we gained an Outstanding certificate in the South West in Bloom 2025 community category.
Future for Christ Church. Our aim was to install toilets (including an accessible one), a kitchen, an office and storage space at the rear of the nave, with flexible open spaces for community use between these areas and the pews, as well as repair work to the bells and bell tower. This work is part funded from proceeds from the sale of our parish rooms (no longer health & safety compliant), and needed substantial repair and redecoration too. In addition we have raised a substantial amount through local effort.
By August 2025 we had raised the total needed through promised grants, donations and our congregation using their talents. The parable of the talents has inspired the congregation to be creative in using their talent over the past two years. Sales of homemade marmalade, jams and chutneys (sold out very quickly), a range of greetings cards, knitted scarves and packets of flower seeds have all proved popular and added to our total. The Ark Toddler Group parents were very supportive and keen to see the improvements to Christ Church go ahead. Their successful January coffee morning and bring & buy sale raised £320.00. Our 2023 Crib Scene Christmas Cards made a profit of £81 after printing costs. Leaflets sent out with the benefice Christmas Cards helped raise awareness of our projects as well as contributions.
Coronation day on 8th May 2024 saw us celebrate with a community fun day with a plant stall outside and stalls, games, teas and a raffle inside the church. Brave soft toys took the Teddy Zip Wire from the tower room to the end of the central aisle. Result? Just over £1,000 towards the toilets and kitchen. Another community day in July 2025 nearing our target and by the end of August 2025 we were able to contract a building firm to start work at the end of September. By erecting a temporary wire mesh fence dividing the nave into two halves, we were able to continue using the church for services and activities, and watch the builders at work during the week.
Can you help?
With the building work completed, we can now use the nave for community activities. However, all funds raised have been used to pay for the building work. In order to continue to serve our community, we still need to pay for things such as our energy and water bills.
Until use of the building for concerts, meetings and other events, provides enough income to supplement the donations at services by our congregation, and occasional donations by visitors in the week, we would appreciate any help you can give. So if you know Christ Church, maybe were baptised or married here, attended Sunday School or got to know us through our close links with the school, could you please consider helping our efforts by donating via our Give A Little campaign.
https://givealittle.co/campaigns/348fecb5-74e7-4c75-90ad-be78d59210da
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