Welcome to Cornwall Historic Churches Trust

About Us

CHCT’s essential task is to support the historic fabric of religious buildings throughout the Duchy. Parishes can apply to us for funds which will go towards the restoration and repairs of Cornish churches.
Read more here

Grants

We offer grants, primarily for fabric repairs, to Cornish churches of all denominations which are used as places of worship. Unfortunately we cannot help closed churches or chapels. Our Smaller Projects Grant, available to Church Friends only, for projects costing less than £10,000 and our Restoration and Repair Grant for large projects up to 25% of the cost capped at a maximum of £10,000.
Read more here.

 

 

CHURCH OF THE MONTH
St Winwaloe, Tremaine

St Winwaloe church in Tremaine is one of the smallest parish churches in Cornwall, being just twelve feet wide and forty four feet long. Built by the Bottreaux family, and given along with Egloskerry church to Launceston Priory in 1160, Tremaine was given the right to carry out burials in the churchyard in 1506, for which right it had to make annual payments in money and wax to St Stephen’s Church, Launceston. Previously burials were carried out at Egloskerry. The population of the parish has never been high, and seems to have peaked in the early 1800’s at around 125 people.
Verna Jones, a holder of the St Piran Cross and former churchwarden, embarked on a very sociable, fundraising challenge in memory of her dear cousin and friend, the late Audrey Jones walking about a mile every weekday through  June.
Verna explains, “This was a social walk with family and friends joining me. Some days when the weather was not so good, I did a walk on our farm. I have been visiting churches and local places of interest. My late cousin Audrey Jones loved Tremaine Church and called it ‘The Stable Church.’  For those who might be unfamiliar with this little church, it is in need of roof repairs and I thought my plan could help raise some money towards this.” Verna is 87 years young! She would like to thank all those who have contributed so far. Donations to support Verna can be given to her directly or to Caroline Stone (Tremaine Churchwarden) or sent to the church via the parish giving website: parishgiving.org.uk/donors/find-your-parish/tremaine-st-winwaloe-plymouth
In March CHCT was pleased to award a grant of £6,300 towards the re-roofing.

GET INVOLVED

Beating the bounds at Ladock

Why your support is essential

To enable us to offer the invaluable assistance for the preservation of our Cornish heritage, we need every church in the Duchy to support and work with us so that we can be there for all in times of need.

To support more projects, we need more funds and your community can help. If each of our 218 parishes could fundraise just £100 a year for CHCT we would have in excess of £20,000 additional funding to offer annually.  Find out more here.

Cornwall Churches Day

Our main fundraising event is Cornwall Churches Day which can be held at any time during the year. We hope all parishes will get involved and raise some essential funds for both themselves and CHCT.
Find out more here.

£200 was raised for CHCT and the same for Veryan church.
A celebration of cupcakes!

Next CHCT Event

Cornwall Historic Churches Trust

Garden Open 4.30pm &
Jazz at Garlenick 6pm 14th July

Kernow Chamber Players will perform a programme of two hugely charismatic jazz suites by the French composer, Claude Bolling: Suite 2 for flute and jazz piano trio and Toot Suite for trumpet and jazz piano trio.
Tickets £25 Adults /£6 Children includes pre-concert Pimms or soft drink
Buy here. Sponsored by Raymond James Truro
See Events Diary for the full list of events for 2026
In the meantime why not take a virtual trip around some of Cornwall’s historic churches here or if you fancy a day out why not try one of our Drive About Trails.

Next Community Event

Cornwall Historic Churches Trust
We do not currently have details of any Community Events

This year CHCT is organising a joint fundraiser for all, Ride, Stride & Sail over the weekend 12/13th September. See here for details.
If your church is holding any event with proceeds split in aid of CHCT at any time let us know and we’ll advertise it here. Thank you.

Recent Fundraising

Thanks to our sponsors Taylor Money Wealth Management and Jonathan Cunliffe and all who helped on the night our Christmas Drinks Party at Scorrier on 18th December 2025 raised £5,600.

A huge thank you to all the communities who raise funds for us. Your support really does make a difference and together we can help to keep Cornish churches & chapels open for future generations. See recent fundraising results here.

EXPLORE CORNISH CHURCHES

St Winnow, Lostwithiel PL22 0LF

Church Histories

Over the years, CHCT has been encouraging individual parishes to write a local history of their church. This is a short, informative piece and is written by the local parish with the help of our historian and archivist.

Is your local church missing from the archive? Full details of how to send us your information are included in the archive here.

Arches in the Decorated Style

Reading Cornish Churches

Thanks to Joanna Mattingly, we have been privileged to be addressed by renowned experts on different stages of church architectural development. We have worked through the Romanesque, Early English, Decorated and Perpendicular periods. We have records of the lecture notes from each talk which you can view here.

Visit an interesting selection of churches on a guided drive

Drive About Tours

The annual driveabouts are created by Carole Vivian as a way of discovering 3-4 churches in a day. She writes about the history of the buildings and features to look out for and directs you from one church to another with suggestions for good places to stop for lunch en route. Trails from previous years are available for a donation of £5. Find out more here.

We are very greatful for the ongoing support of Scott & Co.
sponsors of this website.