The Friends of Heytesbury, Knook and Tytherington Churches

Latest News March 2020

The next talk, with dinner, will be in the autumn at Sutton Veny Village Hall, subject to Covid 19 restrictions. Please look at the Diary page for more details.

The Annual General Meeting was held in Heytesbury Church in April 2019. The 2020 AGM has been postponed.


The Friends of Heytesbury, Knook and Tytherington Churches, a registered charity, was started in 1998 and, in the succeeding twenty years has raised some £120,000, of which nearly £58,000 has already been paid to the PCC of Heytesbury with Tytherington and Knook for the maintenance of the fabric of these three ancient and beautiful churches.

The main purpose of the Friends is to extend support for the three churches beyond the comparatively small number of regular worshippers into the community at large. We usually have a membership of more than 100 whereas the parochial church roll is often less than half that. The other key factor is that, unlike funds raised by the PCC, which, in addition to paying for routine expenditure such as the Diocesan Quota, the cost of lighting and heating, as well as such items as grass cutting; money raised by the Friends can only be used for the long term maintenance of the fabric, fixtures and furnishings of our three churches.

Current Preoccupations: The PCC has vested the Friends with responsibility for helping with raising the money needed to carry out major, high priority restoration work to Heytesbury Church, including repairs to the tower roof, the replacement of slates to all roof slopes, and masonry repairs, as recommended in the Quinquennial Inspection Report, estimated to cost well in excess of £250,000. The Friends added to the £100,000 grant from the Listed Places of Worship Repair Fund which enabled work on the nave roof to start in 2017. Further money was added to grants received for the re-slating and repair of the chancel roof in 2018/19.

A second and subsequent part of the project, still in the early stages of planning, is to create a space in the west end of the Church for the benefit of the wider community. It is hoped that the Charity Commissioners will allow a change to the constitution to enable this to be done.

In 2017 the committee of the Friends agreed to release some funds to cover a shortfall in the cost of the repair of the nave and aisles roofs.