“We need a church building that will allow us to fulfil our aims and support our missions to be a church in and for the 21st Century”

Fr Simon Brandes

St Nicholas Development Project 2014 – 2026

Our Development Campaign was started in 2014. This followed the successful development of St Denys Hall which improved the facilities available for church activities and outreach to the community, including the creation of the Crosslight branch in the parish providing debt and money advice.

The aims of the Development Project were to make safe and restore the fabric of the church building for the use of future generations, and to create a church building fit for its 21st Century worship and for its future mission activities and community engagement.

Specifically:

• In Phase 1, to provide WCs and kitchen facilities in the church building; to improve vestry and storage amenities; to restore the organ and to relocate it to enable these other objectives to be met; to replace the failing gas boilers in the boiler house with a more robust single boiler
• In Phase 2, to repair the external stonework in the most urgent need of securing and repair, on its north and west faces and on the south porch
• In Phase 3, to repair external stonework elsewhere on the south and east faces and to provide a permanent step-free access to the church.

In parallel with restoring and developing St Nick’s, the Development Project funded the building of a church in our partner parish of St Simon and St Jude in Namacunde, Southern Angola, completed in 2019.

In early summer of this year, 2026, we completed the final stages of the fabric restoration, which included the installation of a permanent step-free access at the South Porch, and restoration of the stonework on the South and East faces of the church.

This work has transformed our ability to bring people into our beautiful church and enhance our services to our community, including support to local schools and our musical concert series, amongst many others. In all we raised in excess of £1.5m to undertake this work.

We are grateful to everyone in our congregation, our local community and beyond who have supported our development efforts and contributed so generously over the years.

Our thanks also go to the grant giving bodies that have supported us, including National Churches Trust, Benefact Foundation, Garfield Weston, and our architects and stonemasons who have accompanied us on this journey.