Our grant of £769,309 from the COVID-19 Response Fund has helped fund urgent repairs to two Grade II* listed Welsh churches, enabling Friends of Friendless Churches (FoFC) to take ownership. Once repairs are complete the churches will be re-opened to the public with FoFC working to establish community volunteer groups to facilitate public access.
St James’s Church, Llangua, Monmouthshire and St Lawrence's Church, Gumfreston, Pembrokeshire are churches of exceptional interest. Llangua is a late 15th century church with important surviving medieval fabric. It was the first restoration undertaken by the founder of FoFC in 1954–55. The existing church is of historic interest for the long history of Christianity associated with the site.
Gumfreston has early medieval origins and is closely associated with three holy wells in its churchyard. It retains significant early detail including fragments of wall painting. It is of high architectural and historic significance, and high aesthetic value.
Both churches became redundant as a result of COVID-19, leading to rapid deterioration that left them at exceptional risk of irrecoverable loss of historic fabric and detail.
The cost of condition surveys of a further nine redundant listed Welsh churches was also included in the grant to help FoFC consider taking ownership of them over the next five years.