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Northumbria Historic Churches Trust
Registered Charity No 511314
Chairman
Lieutenant General Robin Brims CB CBE DSO DL
From the Chairman
The Old School
Dalton
NEWCASTLE UPON TYNE
NE18 0AA
Mob: 07791 571 562
Land: 01661 886 106
Email: [email protected]
March 2015
Dear Supporter,
This update on the Northumbria Historic Churches Trust is being sent to the postal addresses that
we hold of our supporters, both individuals and churches. Please forgive us if the address is wrong
or the individual has moved on.
In 2014 we welcomed our new Secretary, Miss Tot Charlton, and said farewell to Peter de Lange
who has stood down from the Secretary’s appointment, after eight years in post, as he has moved
away from our region. We owe him huge thanks for all his work that has ensured the Trust’s status
as a respected organization. We have also been joined by 2 new Trustees:

Dr Margaret Stewart who will lead on our publicity.

Sir Walter Riddell who will lead on drawing attention to the Trust amongst grant making
charities and organizations.
We have said farewell to The Venerable Peter Elliott as a Trustee. We shall certainly miss his
personal knowledge of so many churches. We continue the search for new Trustees with the right
skill sets to fill the voids that will be left as Trustees step down at the end of their 5 year term of
appointment. This 5 year term is renewable by agreement between the Trustee and Chairman.
As far as our key purpose, making grants to churches/chapels to help with repairs, we continue to
make grant offers totalling some £45k per year. Typically our grants are in the region of £1k to £5k
per church project. We believe that our value is as much the authentication that is given to a project
as the monetary contribution.
In order to make these grants we must raise funds. Funds come from donations from our supporters
such as you and we are hugely grateful. We also benefit from legacies left by generous supporters.
On top of this we are given wonderful support by various grant making organizations. Our principal
support comes from the Sir James Knott Trust which gives us nearly half of the funds from which
we make grants to churches and chapels. Additionally the Secretary of the Sir James Knott Trust
assisted us in the selection process by which we appointed our new Secretary. We also gain support
from a number of trusts that are now administered by the Community Foundation Tyne & Wear and
Northumberland.
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Our own main fund raising event remains the annual Steeplechase. This is a national event held on
the second Saturday in September every year under the title Ride and Stride. The date is chosen,
nationally, to be coincident to Heritage Open Days. This event has undergone recent organization
change. The labour intensive paper and postage has given way to on-line working. The District
Organizers who did a magnificent job over many years were moving away from the area or stepping
down from the role and volunteers to replace them were not forthcoming. So the on-line
management has saved significant overhead cost and allows us to deal direct to churches. In 2014
we did not reach all the churches and we shall be seeking to correct this by way of letters such as
this; publications in church newsletters; and through the church hierarchies. Over the last four years
the sum raised has been slowly subsiding from £20k to £16k. This is then divided between the Trust
and the participating church with the Trust gaining the Gift Aid benefit. In 2014, the first year of
fully on-line organization, and with churches feeling the cold wind of austerity, we invited churches
to find new ways of raising funds on the day and to keep what they raised for their own benefit. In
the event, the Steeplechase raised £8k to be divided between the Trust and participating church,
which was a wonderful effort and demonstrated the support for our work. Thank you so much.
News of the 2015 Steeplechase is now on our website. The event will be held on Saturday 12
September 2015. Churches wishing to enter are asked to let the Steeplechase coordinator know by
emailing [email protected]
The hard facts that your Trustees are attending to are the aging process of our loyal supporters,
financial austerity, and new ways of working. In short we need to reach out to some younger
people, and they are mainly using social media. So as we confront these new circumstances we are
mindful of not alienating our older, loyal, supporters; hence this newsletter. Future newsletters and
news of the Trust will be found at www.NorthumbriaHCT.org.uk We hope that amongst local
congregations someone will help those who are not on-line to access this information.
Yours sincerely,
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