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The
Work of the Trust
Cambridgeshire has more than 300 churches and chapels of historic
and architectural interest. They span over a thousand years
from the Saxon period at Great Paxton to the High Victorian revival
at Waresley and All Saints, Jesus Lane, Cambridge.
In almost every village and town it is the church and the churchyard
that form a visual focus and the longest visual thread.
The churchyard may contain the only substantial trees, areas of
ancient grassland and rare habitats, and the church building is
the bastion of the local distinctiveness of building styles and
materials. The limestone spires of old Huntingdonshire strike
an obvious contrast with the chalk and cobble towers of East Cambridgeshire.
The care of the church sites falls squarely on the local community
and especially its church members. They carry the burden
of continuous maintenance and the raising of massive funds for
repair.
That's where we can offer some assistance:
In 1953, the Historic
Churches Preservation Trust was founded and became the leading
body dedicated to preserving the nation's churches. Seeing the
great need locally, the Cambridgeshire Historic Churches
Trust was founded in June 1983, by the original trustees
who were Pamela, Lady Wedgewood, the Venerable
Richard Sledge, Robert Walker and the Reverend
Robert Van De Weyer.
The Trust's main aim is to provide financial assistance to the
parishes of Cambridgeshire, when they undertake repair projects
affecting the fabric, fixtures, furniture and ornaments of their
historic churches and chapels.
To this end the Trust has a policy of making grants and interest
free loans from it's funds to allow repair work to be undertaken
without delay and to provide a cash-flow for larger scale projects.
The Trust's main fund raising event is the Annual Sponsored Cycle
Ride, which takes place in September. The continuing success
of this event is crucial to the amount of funds available to be
distributed to the Historic Churches of Cambridgeshire.
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