St Peter & St Paul Church, Great Casterton

Each year we support capital projects to improve rural and urban faith buildings so they can be used more widely by the local community. These projects include putting in kitchens, toilets, improving accessibility and energy efficiency. For many areas these buildings are the only ones available for public use and we know how important a physical place to meet up is for a community. While these projects may not be appealing to all funders, we welcome applications for this type of work that supports local communities.

This medieval village church and its hall are the only community facilities in the parish and are used for a variety of activities from a cafe to line dancing! Both the church and its hall’s oil-fired heating systems were breaking down and needed replacing. Having already achieved a Bronze Eco Church award, the church community was committed to achieving a Silver award and planned on installing air source heat pumps as an environmentally sustainable alternative which matches our commitment to supporting environmentally friendly projects.

When St Peter and St Paul applied to us, they had secured over half the cost of the project including local gifts which demonstrated how much the community valued the organisation. The church followed our application guidelines and so were able to make a clear, strong case which included all the financial information we needed.