Sussex Historic Churches Trust

The Sussex Historic Churches Trust is a heritage preservation body founded in 1956 to safeguard architecturally and historically significant places of worship for future generations, driven by values of stewardship, community continuity, civic identity, and inclusive faith heritage protection across all denominations. Its grantmaking philosophy emphasizes pragmatic intervention to avert irretrievable loss of sacred buildings through evidence-led support for urgent structural repairs, prioritizing professional conservation practices, faculty-approved works, and the ongoing vitality of worship spaces as community anchors. Believing that well-maintained historic fabric sustains both spiritual life and cultural cohesion, the Trust partners with congregations demonstrating genuine need and heritage rationale.

It funds essential conservation activities including reroofing, masonry renovation, spire and tower repairs, weatherproofing, and fabric restoration for places of worship at least 100 years old, addressing chronic dilapidation, underinvestment risks, and threats of closure that undermine active worship and communal gatherings. Supported interventions focus on structural renewal of churches, chapels, and sacred sites of Anglican and non-Anglican traditions, enabling continued use for religious services, community events, and cultural heritage preservation. Beneficiaries encompass local congregations maintaining these irreplaceable landmarks, alongside broader rural and urban communities deriving social cohesion, historical continuity, and identity from preserved ecclesiastical architecture, with emphasis on buildings listed for exceptional heritage value in active settings.

Exclusions encompass routine maintenance, non-fabric improvements, internal modernisations, modern facilities, non-worship spaces, and projects lacking proven historical or architectural significance or expert-assessed urgency. Distinctive for its unwavering niche in ecclesiastical fabric conservation, open support for all Christian traditions regardless of size or locality, rigorous evidence-based decision-making by specialist advisors, and promotion of holistic stewardship over piecemeal fixes, the Trust prioritizes grassroots congregations stewarding oldest, most vulnerable sacred structures integral to community heritage and spiritual life.