HCT's proposals

Background to the organisation

The Historic Chapels Trust was established in 1993 to take into ownership disused places of worship of outstanding quality. So far it has taken 17 former places of worship around the country into its care in England. These range from small chapels in remote locations to large town and city churches. The Trust has to date overseen the restoration and regeneration of ten of its buildings and intends starting work on a further four in 2005. The Trustees and staff thus have a wealth of experience in handling projects of this nature.

How do we propose to tackle the works that are required?

HCT became the owners of the Bethesda Methodist Chapel in 2002. HCT has engaged Brownhill Hayward Brown as its architects for the project. Based nearby in Lichfield, the practice has considerable experience of overseeing the repair of important historic building to high conservation-based standards. It also has good contacts with local experienced craftsmen.

Brownhill Hayward Brown has undertaken a full condition survey of the building and an outline scheme for the full repair of the building and conversion to a multi-functional performance venue. It is estimated that the whole project will cost in the order of £2.5 million.

Fundraising for such a large sum will take a long time, and the condition of the building may worsen in the meantime. In order to halt the decline, HCT has decided to split the project into phases. This not only makes the task of fundraising less daunting, but enables work to start on site sooner.

You can read more about this on our "Progress" page.