West Torrington Community & Heritage Action
About
We are a charity supporting West Torrington and the wider area to protect and restore local heritage and support isolated areas to tackle rural disadvantage. We are creating, restoring and running the church as a much needed indoor space to support the community.
How it started
The #Saveourspace campaign began in 2022 when our closed church of St Marys was put up for sale as a possible residential conversion. It mobilised the village to get together and reach out to the diocese to see whether they would sell us the church so we could use it as a community space. Before this all our social events centred around our bus stop!
On Friday 24 May 2024 the purchase was completed.
How it's going
It has been busy since then! We have made a lot of changes in the building: we now have a kitchen and a toilet as well as a lovely logburner so that it is more comfortable to use all year round. The back door has been repaired to keep the weather out and the porch entrance has been repaired in preparation for new metal gates to be fitted in the summer of 2026.
We started with a few events: Easter Egg Hunt, Summer Fete, Harvest Supper, Remembrance Day and Christmas Carols. We are now working to expand on this to bring new people to our lovely church. So far in 2026 we have taken part in the West Lindsey Churches Festival and hosted an art exhibition, had a talk on honey by Sue's World of Honey, have learned about the 1536 Lincolnshire Rising from our resident genealogist Nicola Hallam and celebrated Bastille Day with a French themed social event. To find out what's coming next visit our Events page and our Facebook page.
What does the future hold?
We want the church to become the centre of our community as it would have been for centuries. A place to gather and learn, have fun, talk and educate. Events and the money we receive in donations at these events will help us to do that so we definitely plan more of those. We would like to make the church available as a venue to existing groups. Many repairs are required, particularly to the roof.