All Saints Forward Project

The All Saints Forward Group developed an ambitious heritage project for the future of our parish church, backed by a major Heritage Lottery Fund grant.

Though we raised some large sums of money, more was still needed. For details of how you can help financially, please see Donations for this Project, and a full list of the funding bodies who supported us with grants can be seen at Grants for this Project. For the latest updates on progress, see our Project Latest News page.

Below is the story of how we obtained both a Stage 1 ‘pass’ and the Stage 2 final grant of £748,100 from the Heritage Lottery Fund, and what we hoped to achieve.

How It Started

An exciting development in the life of our church began late in 2008, when the PCC decided to contract Alastair Simmons, of Taskscape Associates Ltd, to act as a consultant and facilitator for the initial stage of the project. This initial stage included:

• A Cultural Audit — looking at the ‘way we do things around here’ at All Saints’.
• A workshop to discover and agree the future sustainable Purposes of All Saints’.
• Consideration of the future Purposes in the light of the Cultural Audit findings, and iterating those Purposes.
• The development of an Outline Communication and Project Plan, showing immediate next steps and the tasks, teams and time required to deliver the Purposes.
• A one-day workshop to explore how the Purposes of All Saints’ could best be expressed by its buildings.

This stage concluded on 13th February 2010 with a public meeting at which our architect, Brian Foxley, outlined his ideas. The aim was that members of our congregation and the wider community could contribute their ideas, so that All Saints’ would have a sustainable future as the parish church of Winterton.

The Core Group

The initial core group set up by the PCC to guide the discovery of new purpose and opportunity for All Saints’ was expanded to include: Revd Alice Nunn, Revd Jane Whitehead, Revd Bill Pegg, Eric Burton (until 2011), Margaret Holtby, Frank Jervis, Jean Key, Derek Liversidge, Ida Liversidge, Robin Shawyer, Russell Walshaw, Shirley White, Dorothy Yeadon, Pat Cooke, Liz Gregory (until 2011), Sarah Precious, Lucinda Hopkins, Sue Anable, Gail Summerfield, Karen Fanthorpe, Tim Johns, Gwenifer Shawyer, Elaine Southern, and, from 2013, Colin Donaghy, John Dagger and John Northall.

Please direct any thoughts or enquiries, in the first instance, to Robin Shawyer, Treasurer of the PCC and Chair of the core group, on 01724 734285, or by e-mail to officeaswinterton@gmail.com.

The Heritage Lottery Fund Bid

The group developed ideas throughout 2010 and 2011, and decided that, in view of the extremely rich heritage embodied in the church fabric, artefacts and archives, and our ancient town settlement, a heritage focus was most appropriate. There was also strong community support for such a focus.

Research was carried out and many contacts made, enabling us to submit a Stage 1 Heritage Lottery Fund application in September 2011, under the project title ‘All Saints: the story it tells of Winterton’. In December 2011 we were told that our application had ‘passed’ Stage 1, and we were granted £36,000 for the cost of the development work needed to reach the point of submitting our Stage 2 application in September 2012.

We were delighted to learn in March 2013 that the Heritage Lottery Fund had decided to grant us £748,100 to complete the project.

Our plans continued to develop. After much discussion, and following advice from those organisations whose consent was needed for our planned new extension, we developed our ideas further to reach a final proposal in December 2013. This was then subject to final consultation and submitted for faculty approval and planning permission. The church closed on 1st January 2014 to be readied for works to begin as soon as permissions were received.

Public Meeting, 30 June 2012

A public meeting was held on Saturday 30th June 2012 to update the community on the project. It was well attended, with a number of interesting questions posed and much support shown. The agenda, background data and a copy of the presentation slides from this meeting are available to download below, along with the 2012 Funding Appeal leaflet.

In December 2011 the Heritage Lottery Fund had announced that it would offer first-round support for the project developed by our All Saints Forward group, titled ‘All Saints: the story it tells of Winterton’. The diagrams above show the initial version of the plans submitted for approval and discussion with the diocesan planning authorities, and to the Heritage Lottery Fund as part of our Stage 2 application in September 2012.

Design Concepts

February 2010: our architect, Brian Foxley, produced some fascinating ideas at the public meeting on 13th February 2010. No final decisions had been taken, much work remained to be done, and grant applications still had to be made. However, the plans gave an idea of how our beautiful church building might have its medieval fabric conserved while being modified to meet our agreed purposes. A full digital survey was conducted in late 2009, allowing the production of 3D images of the church and churchyard, and detailed plans of the church and churchyard as they existed.

November 2012: a detailed version of the plans and reasons was submitted to English Heritage for comment.

December 2013: designs including the external plan and elevations, nave plan and elevations, tower ground floor and upper levels, Heritage Room, Parish Room, kitchen plan and elevations, and vestry, were subject to final consultation and submission for faculty approval and planning permission.

February 2014: some final design changes were made in consultation with the Diocese and other advisory bodies, covering the plan of the nave aisles, external elevations, and the kitchen plan, elevations and sections.

Statements of Significance and Need

To support the faculty application, statements were prepared explaining in detail the significance of our church and the needs which existed and which justified the changes being planned. These are available to download below.

• 10 Feb 09 — Vision for the FutureEarly vision document (PDF)
• Heritage Lottery Fund Enquiry Success, June 2011PDF
• 2012 Funding AppealFunding appeal leaflet (PDF)
• April 2013 — Heritage Lottery Fund Final Grant AwardedPDF
• Project Dec 2013 — Heritage RoomDesign drawing (PDF)
• Feb 2014 — Plan of Nave AislesDesign drawing (PDF)
• Feb 2014 — External ElevationsDesign drawing (PDF)
• Statement of SignificanceFaculty supporting document (PDF)
• Statement of NeedFaculty supporting document (PDF)

For how the project unfolded on site from 2014 onwards, see our Project Latest News page.