Thank you to all who contributed to our Community Consultation. We have now combined these responses with our own thoughts as a Parochial Church Council (PCC) and with the needs for repairs to the Grade II listed church, and have decided on a project with the title above. This area of Titterstone Clee Hill is rich with industrial heritage and human stories, and the church was built for the workers on the hill. We want to honour the past by providing information about the history and heritage of the church and area as well as of the people who have lived, worked and worshipped on the hill. We also need to repair the cast iron windows which are recognised as a significant feature of the church and bear witness to links with the iron industry, and we need to make other repairs to the fabric of the church. To improve the church and allow it to continue to shine its light on the hill, welcoming locals and visitors alike, we are planning to improve the access outside (to both the graveyard and the church) and inside, as well as adding a toilet, some kitchen facilities and a hearing loop.Imagine coming to church for a service, an event, to tend a grave, to look at or show a friend the history of our area and look at information about wildlife on the hill, or just to sit on a bench and look at the view, and being able to pop in to the loo! What’s more, the church will feel less cold and damp once the repairs are done, and we will be able to do more at the site once we have better access and more facilities.All of this of course will require funding and fundraising. The community has been very supportive of the church in raising funds for repairs in the past and it is thanks to this that the church is still at the centre of the community and that we can consider making these improvements. We were recently successful in receiving grants from the Big Lottery Fund and Shropshire Historic Churches Trust to conduct the consultation and to have plans drawn up for the works which we need to have done, and have been promised some funding from the Ironmongers’ Company towards refurbishing the windows. We are now in the process of applying for further grants to help with the cost of the works as a whole, as well as working on the details of the plans. We have already set up some extra special Event-a-Month dates and we will let you know more about fundraising activities in the coming months.If you have any questions or comments about the above, do send us a message.
