Buckinghamshire Historic Churches Trust

Buckinghamshire Historic Churches Trust was established in 1957 with a founding mission to safeguard historic religious buildings as irreplaceable communal assets, preserving Buckinghamshire's architectural heritage, local history, and social continuity for future generations. Guided by values of heritage preservation, community cohesion, voluntarism, ecumenism, and architectural appreciation, their grantmaking philosophy emphasizes practical fabric interventions to sustain worship, cultural enjoyment, and community life, believing that protecting ancient structures fosters ritual continuity, educational legacy, and social bonding through grassroots stewardship and public engagement.

They prioritize capital grants for urgent repairs, restoration, and essential maintenance of historic churches, chapels, and worship buildings over 100 years old or with exceptional architectural or historical merit, funding structural fabric works including roofs, decayed stonework, rainwater disposal systems, medieval wall paintings conservation, and listed feature protection to prevent deterioration and ensure structural integrity. Supported interventions target Anglican parish churches, Roman Catholic congregations, Non-Conformist chapels, rural parish heritage sites, and urban worship spaces, addressing threats like weathering, decay, and fabric failure through targeted conservation that maintains historical authenticity and enables ongoing public worship, community gatherings, and cultural access without modernization or aesthetic enhancements.

They exclude routine maintenance, domestic items, internal fixtures, electrical works, community facilities, non-fabric projects, or decorative improvements, focusing solely on statutory-permitted fabric preservation for ecumenical worship buildings. Distinctive for their volunteer-led operations, local collaborative identity via Friends groups and events, and unwavering commitment to Buckinghamshire's rural parishes and urban congregations, they favor applicants like Parochial Church Councils demonstrating architectural merit, historical significance, and community vitality through preserved sacred spaces central to faith practices and heritage education.