Nailsea church awarded grant for repairs and reopening

Holy Trinity Church, in Church Lane, has been awarded the money through the second round of the Culture Recovery Fund for Heritage – to help organisations cope with the effects of the pandemic.

The church, like many organisations, has been hit hard by the lockdowns. Local authority grants, the furlough scheme and support from the congregation has helped to keep the church going, but the pandemic has had a huge impact on its finances.

It has also affected the church’s ability to support local groups which use the buildings to run their activities.

Despite the challenges, the church continued to help people in Nailsea during the pandemic, but members are now looking forward to the reopening date and welcoming community groups back in to the Trinity Centre and Church Hall buildings.

Holy Trinity Church in Nailsea. (Image: Holy Trinity Church)

James Packman, rector of Holy Trinity, said: “This grant will really help us get back to serving our local community.

“We estimate that we had 35,000 visits through our doors in 2019.

"People came into the church building, Trinity Centre, Trinity House and Church Hall for all sorts of reasons, from those using our facilities for dance lessons to counselling, and from toddler groups to our lunch for seniors, and much, much more.

“It’s been really sad that many of these groups have been restricted or had to stop for periods of time over the past year, so this grant money is a great encouragement for us as we look to throw open our doors wide to the community once again.”

The £76,200 grant will help the church undertake the costs to open up safely, and also complete some of the repairs that would not have been possible otherwise, due to financial constraints.

Holy Trinity is looking forward to welcoming back community groups including toddler groups, rainbows, guides and brownies, pop-in lunches for the elderly, sole survivor, music, choir and dance groups, and local school children.