High Toynton church secures £200k funding from The National Lottery Heritage Fund

Future of damaged building now safe thanks to National Lottery players and work of villagers

Residents of High Toynton are celebrating after securing more than £200,000 in funding from The National Lottery Heritage Fund to repair and rebuild St John the Baptist Church.

The Lincolnshire village, which made national headlines back in January 2020 when its church tower collapsed, will soon have the structure back open for the community thanks to this significant financial support.

Work to make the building safe and reusable after the collapse - and two subsequent years of weather damage - will cost over £250,000, with plans for a new entrance and restored nave, built using the original stone.

With the vast majority of funding now confirmed, after two years of intense effort and fundraising by villagers and members of the church reconstruction should begin within weeks.

Alison Bell, Parochial Church Council secretary and village resident, said: “We can now embrace the potential of how our rural community might use this space. All sorts of creative ideas, alongside worship, have been aired through our ‘High Toynton Renewed’ project. The next few years will see some fascinating developments.”

The tower collapse left a scene of devastation, and prompted a search and rescue operation by firefighters to make sure no one was trapped beneath the rubble.

As surveyors investigated the safety of the remaining structure, villagers rallied to save their church, working to raise the funds needed to reopen a building that has been at the centre of this rural community for almost 800 years.

The church and surrounding wild flower church yard have played host to countless celebrations and ceremonies over the years from weddings and christenings to music festivals and village gatherings.

Now, this doubly thankful village - one of only 14 villages in England and Wales to welcome home all of its residents who served in both World Wars - has even more cause to give thanks. 

Reverend Canon Charles Patrick: “It’s wonderful news that we have received this grant from The National Lottery Heritage Fund. We thank them, and also pay tribute to the dedication of the residents of the village, together with their many friends across the area, whose hard work and tenacity has secured this grant. We can now look forward to seeing the Church being restored over the coming months as a place of worship, and also as a versatile centre to serve the community in a host of imaginative ways.”

Rebuilding St John the Baptist church has been made possible thanks to the Heritage Fund and National Lottery players, who support thousands of good causes every year.

Orchids pay a visit to High Toynton this summer

Two lovely visitors have been spotted in the High Toynton this summer - look at these orchids snapped this week in the village churchyard.

These are some of the results of work done by Mark Schofield and Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust over the past five years as part of the wild flower churchyard.

The seed for these orchids were introduced from Red Hill in 2015/2016.

A (rainy) royal garden party fit for a Queen!

The village turned out on Sunday to pay tribute to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II at a rainy but enjoyable Platinum Jubilee garden party.

A fantastic effort was made by village organisers to adapt to the weather - with three marquees hastily erected to keep partygoers safe from the elements.

Equally heroic catering was provided, with a fabulous array of food and desserts supplied, all of it fit for a Queen. A huge thank you to everyone who played a part.

Many new faces were welcomed to the village, and everyone raised a glass to Her Majesty in honour of her remarkable 70-year reign.

Tales from a small village

On Sunday April 3rd, High Toynton hosted a special afternoon of guided tours and stories from our village history, courtesy of Alison Bell.

Set among the churchyard where so many generations have gathered before, Alison shared tales from our village’s past, telling how people lived here long ago, the trials they faced (along with a few scandals too), to bring the tombstones to life!

Two dozen people turned out, and over £200 pounds was raised for our fundraising efforts “High Toynton Renewed”.

Huge thank you to the organisers, and to everyone who came along to enjoy the day.

2021 Christmas Service

The village gathered together on Sunday December 19th 2021 for our annual Christmas Service - only this time in the open air.

While the church remains out of action (not for much longer, we hope), we met instead in the churchyard for a selection of traditional carols, led by the Rev Charles Patrick.

We then moved on to a nearby garden for more socially distanced singing, mulled wine and a mince pie or two.

Fingers crossed that by next year we can do at least part of the service inside our beloved church.

Wolds & Coast Churches Festival weekend raises hundreds

Last weekend saw the long-awaited return of the Lincolnshire Wolds & Coast Churches Festival - and here at High Toynton we celebrated in style.

The grounds and chancel of St John the Baptist were transformed for a weekend of celebration marking the history, present and future of our wonderful church.

There was excellent live music, courtesy of Bell & Booth, Foxrose and Nicky Harby. There was also a stunning mural by local village artist in residence Toni Cunningham. Ton’s offer to immortalise loved ones by painting portraits of people into the church mural proved very popular, and the offer remains open. All that’s needed is a photo and a donation towards the church.

There was plenty of delicious food and cakes and guided tours of the newly refurbished chancel and church yard by Alison Bell.

Thanks to the generous donations of visitors, we managed to raise more than £650 towards the restoration of the church. Our hard working project managers have now got the body of the National Lottery Heritage Fund application in place - if all goes to plan then hopefully by next year’s Festival the churchyard will look very different!

Thank you to every one who turned out to explore our church and grounds, and to the village for making it such a success.

To donate to our fundraising efforts, please visit our Just Giving Page.

Project managers appointed

It is with great excitement and gratitude that we welcome John Patrick and Anne Irving who have undertaken to guide us through the sticky mire of grant funding, regulations and fundamentally getting all the processes in the correct order.

They have tremendous experience between them having both worked in much the same capacity at Lincoln Cathedral.

On its way towards being a wonderful community space

The question of what to build to replace the fallen tower has already been discussed. Experts have told us that getting funding for a tower would be next to impossible, but a light and airy porch could reuse materials from the old one and be high enough to hang the bells.

Villagers have been asked what they would like to see happening in their church in the future. This resulted in many ideas such as Children's Playgroups, Baby and Toddler Groups, Craft Making Workshops, an Audiovisual Unit promoting our Social History and Wild Flower Churchyard, as well as village functions such as quizzes, concerts, exhibitions and film nights.

Developing the space so that it can be hired out for functions would enable an income to be generated.

There are many things to be taken into account in order to make this work but on the whole .......High Toynton Church is on it's way towards being a wonderful community space as well as a modern, inclusive place of worship.

Chancel rises from the ashes

Although the Nave is still a scene of devastation, the Chancel has received a facelift with financial help from the Church Commission.

A wooden partition now divides the two keeping builder's dust and pigeons at bay. Re-plastering and lime-washing have been carried out, giving High Toynton a place for meetings and worship, Covid permitting.

Harvest festival for church mural unveiling

A socially distanced harvest festival in the wild flower churchyard on September 6th to mark the unveiling of our village murals

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