St Margaret's, HorsmondenST MARGARET'S CHURCH BUILDING FUNDRAISING APPEAL
UPDATE ON PROGRESS NOVEMBER- DECEMBER 2023
Our latest fundraising total is £435,000! A huge thank you to all who have donated and to our amazing fundraisers. Really good progress is being made but there is still lots to do. See our update below.
We have been talking about providing toilets and a kitchen at St Margarets for nearly 30 years!!
The fantastic news is that we have planned and designed a modest extension to the north of the west tower to contain a kitchen, an accessible toilet and standard toilet. We are also improving the access to the main west door to prevent heat loss and easier access to the church by constructing a glass and timber porch. We will be removing unused pew platforms to the base of the tower and installing a new floor to match the existing. There will also be construction of bespoke cabinetry to the tower base.
The provision of the kitchen and toilet facilities will immediately enable us to offer increased Church services and the wider use of the building for events like art shows, drama performances, flower festivals and Horsmonden community events. It will create a much more appealing venue for people to reflect and enhance the community spirit.
We have raised funding to start the building project, including grants from Marshalls and The Garfield Weston Foundation. We have applied for further funding but we are still short of around £100,000. We need your support to enable us to complete this project. There is Gift Aid benefit available on donations (see donor fomr link below). If you know anyone, organisations or funding providers please let the building appeal team know at stmargaretsbuilding@gmail.com Every little helps preserve our beautiful church for our community and special events, please give as generously as you can.
WHAT WE ARE DOING
We are very excited by the plans that have been developed over the last 3 years with our Architects Thomas Ford and Partners. St Margaret’s is a beautiful 700 year old Grade 1 listed building in a stunning location. The aim is for it to become a building that can be used by the whole community, providing facilities and flexibility fit for the next 100 years or more.
To achieve this the overall project has been divided into phases, as follows:
- PHASE 1 – essential tower repairs, including, replacement of roof, various timber repairs and treatment, and external masonry repairs, total cost £90,000.
- PHASE 2 – adding a kitchen and toilet extension at the northern base of the tower, including removal of tower pew platforms, storage cupboards and a glazed weatherproof entrance for the West door in the tower, total cost £340,000.
- PHASE 3 – internal reordering of the nave, including removal of pews to create a flexible internal space, reinstatement of flooring under pew platforms, and underfloor heating, comfortable seating, relocation of font, new lighting, and glazed weatherproof entrance to the north door. Total cost £350,000. Repairs to the nave and chancel roof timbers will need to be undertaken at the same time, at a cost of £260,000
See the plans by clicking here: Phase 2, Phase 3
Funding
The above costs include VAT and under a Government scheme we should be able to reclaim the majority of VAT paid. This still requires a considerable amount of fundraising to be carried out by a dedicated team. There are numerous funds that will provide grants for such work once we have raised at least half the funds locally from individuals, we therefore need your help.
Donations
If you would like to be part of these exciting plans and can make a donation there is a donor form here. If you are a UK taxpayer we are able to claim gift aid on your donation boosting your donation by 25%.
Progress
We will be providing regular updates on how progress is being made towards the funding targets. You can see that funding status will be shown by the “scaling the tower” board at the church and in the village, so you can see where we are to date.