HCT - The Past and Future

The Historic Chapels Trust was established in 1996 and is the only national charity in England to save and protect significant non-Church of England places of worship no longer used by their congregations.

Over the past 28 years, the Historic Chapels Trust took on responsibility for 20 of the most important Grade I and Grade II* listed places of worship in England, that at the time were in need of a new owner, as no other viable alternative use had been found.

Unfortunately the grant aid that had been essential for underpinning HCT’s ‘business model’ has declined over recent years. Despite significant efforts to find new sources of income, HCT has instead had had to engage in the challenge of finding new sympathetic owners who can offer a more sustainable future.

Further details to the background to recent events have been published in our Supporters Newsletter, and are detailed in the Chairman’s report in the Summer 2023 Newsletter.

HCT has been fortunate to obtain funding to assist in both carrying out some urgently needed repairs to some of the chapels that have yet to be fully restored. Kathryn Moore, our Conservation Project Manager, has obtained a set of reports prioritising the individual repair needs and is in the process of working up a programme of repairs for certain buildings and seeking tenders. We hope to be able to have builders on site Summer/Autumn 2024. In some case works will take place in 2025.

At the same time, HCT has engaged Tricolor Associates to take forward the process of seeking new owners for our chapels and overseeing all that is involved in conducting negotiations and effecting transfers. Tricolor worked with us on our funding bid and we have established a good working relationship. Emma Collins is their Senior Project Manager, with overall responsibility for this aspect of the project and there have been some promising developments in finding new owners for some of our collection. Further details are available in our Spring 2024 Newsletter.

Unfortunately, for circumstances beyond our control, HCT’s website has not been available for approximately two years. We are grateful to colleagues at Tricolor for overseeing the ‘recreation’ of the website and we hope readers will find it both interesting and informative.

– April 2024