Church Hall Fundraising

To read an update about our Hall’s Project, please click here.

Our Church Centre is a much loved, and well used community space; from Karate classes, to Slimming World, Art and craft groups, Polling Stations, Warm Space initiatives, birthday parties and the church office…to name just a few!

We are very blessed to have such an amazing space, with 3 kitchen areas, 2 large halls, a dedicated youth space, and various rooms for community and church use.

The halls are grade II listed, and were built in 1865. They still have the original roofing – which unfortunately causes major damp problems in the buildings.

We are planning to give our hall complex a complete refurbishment and make it Net Zero carbon emissions by replacing the original roof and adding solar panels. We also hope to insulate the walls internally and switch to a renewable heating system.

We started our fundraising efforts with an amazing match funding offer from Aviva, who matched individual donations up to £250!

To see our project page, please visit https://www.avivacommunityfund.co.uk/p/smart-netzero

Thank you for supporting our project!

 FAQ’s

1. What exactly are you trying to do?
   • Give our much loved and well used church hall complex a complete refurbishment and take it as close to Net Zero carbon emissions as possible
2. How are you going to do it?
   • Our starting point is to eliminate the significant damp issues caused by the original roof from … wait for it … 1865. So yes, after 158 years we think it needs replacing. Whilst we have the scaffolding in place and are replacing the roof we will of course add insulation, solar panels and battery storage.
3. Why does your project matter?
   • We estimate that the halls footfall is approximately 32,000. The people who come here do so for all sorts of activities – dancing, karate, losing weight, toddler groups, spinning, quilting, arts and crafts, voting in elections, birthday parties and other celebrations.
   • About 65% of those visiting relates to pure community use, 15% relates to community activities run by the church, such as our Adults, Babies and Children toddler group, with 20% being church related activities, such as church services and children and youth work.
4. What impact are you hoping to have?
   • The halls are grade II listed, built in 1865. They have no insulation, old single pane windows and ancient inefficient gas boilers. Because the buildings are in constant use and require heating mornings, afternoons and evenings, our energy usage is massive – about 100,000 kilowatt hours. That’s roughly the equivalent of having four kettles permanently switched on every hour of every day. We want to get to the stage where we have net zero carbon emissions, generating at least as much energy as we use.
5. What makes your project unique?
   • So, we want our halls to be an example of how you can make an old uninsulated building net zero and give it a complete facelift to create a warm and welcoming building with modern facilities whilst maintaining the integrity of the listed building.
6. What are your motivations for doing this project?
   • We are an Eco Church. We got our bronze award in 2021 and have just been awarded silver in September 2023. We are passionate about climate action and cherishing nature, so we have a living churchyard with lots of wild flowers. The Church of England has set the target of becoming net zero by 2030, and we’d love this project to inspire others as well.
7. When did you start working on your project?
   • We started with a survey of users of the hall in 2022 and used the results to create the brief for our architects. Since then we have had an energy efficiency report to ensure we are heading in the right direction.
8. What milestones have you achieved already?
   • We have completed the design stage of the project and been awarded a grant from Cornwall Council’s ‘Community Capacity Fund’. We are now ready to launch our appeal for grant funding and donations to start phase 2, replacing the roof to solve all the damp issues.
9. What have you learned along the way?
   • We taken the time to consult widely, obtain professional advice and make sure we are on the right track. We had assumed that any new heating system would be based around ground source or air source heat pumps, but the energy survey suggested air to air heat pumps to avoid significant re-plumbing.
10. What will the money raised be spent on?
    • This is a capital project, so all the funds raised will go towards the works to save this wonderful building from deteriorating further, and bring it up to a modern, warm and welcoming space for the church and for our community for generations to come.