The past 18 months have been an exceptionally challenging time for Historic Chapels Trust (HCT) as we have tried to find a solution to safeguard the future of our 20 remarkable Nonconformist and Catholic Chapels no longer in regular use for worship. During this time, our financial situation deteriorated and we had established that there remained no grant-giving body willing to sustain our existing financial model. We are, therefore, immeasurably grateful to have received funding from the National Heritage Memorial Fund's Cultural Assets Fund of c.£3.6 million. However, this funding is ringfenced to undertake a programme of urgent repairs to our chapels most at risk of loss or permanent damage. Alongside this we received funding from Historic England to manage a major project to find new owners for our chapels who are better placed to care for them in the longer term.
Finding a sustainable solution to safeguard the future of the chapels is our primary goal. HCT no longer has adequate resources to do this and we believe that the chapels will be better cared for if we can find new, sympathetic custodians to take on their ownership and breathe new life into them.
However, in order to realise our goal, HCT needs to remain viable in the short to medium term to manage the project, which is essential to protect our chapels. I hope that you will donate to our Fund the Future of our Chapels campaign, which will provide much needed funding to meet our essential core costs, which are not covered by our two funders and are difficult to raise from other sources, to ensure we can continue our work at this vital time and give our wonderful chapels the future they deserve.