Holy Trinity Queenborough

High Street

Kent

ME11 5AG

Coming Up in Queenborough this month

Sunday Services in church 11am 

Socially distanced and obeying latest Covid Rules

Follow us on Facebook at HOLY TRINITY QUEENBOROUGH for our latest updates, prayers and reflections

New Facebook page for whole parish:  

https://www.facebook.com/pg/IslandMinistriesSheppey/

Dates for the Diary

All Events Postponed until further notice 

 Sat 2nd May 2020 postponed until Sat 1st May 2021

Rodgers and Hammerstein Marathon

Our Church

Built around 1367 the church is unusual in that we know not only when work commenced on the building but also who undertook the work and how much it cost. The church has a tower of 6 bells and the view from the tower is greatly admired. The painted ceiling is believed to be painted by a Dutchman circa 1698 portraying the firmament of the sky but it  was unfortunately damaged by a serious fire in the 1930’s. The church is visited by many tourists who sail to the town and every effort is made to keep the church open all year during daylight hours for visitors who wish to enjoy the peace, serenity and beauty of our historic treasures. The church boasts a wealth of history in that Hogarth spent part of a riotous journey in Queenborough and Lord Nelson took Holy Communion in the church whilst staying in the town. Today this church is not only home for the Christian family but a focus for notable occasions in the lives of the community. The church holds regular Sunday morning services and a number of annual events such as The Blessing Of the Waters Service at the waters edge on Crundall's Wharf in the town which is attended by local fishermen, sailors, the lifeboat and Pilot boats. An annual Flower Festival in July and regular monthly Chill and Chat coffee mornings in the church. Queenborough owns its own church hall which is situated behind the church in North Road opposite the Vicarage. It is fully equipped, is used for church functions and is also hired out.

Holy Trinity Queenborough needs your help. We have a small, faithful, hardworking congregation trying to preserve the heritage and spirituality of the local parish church for the use of the whole community whenever they may need it.

We are desperately trying to raise money to repair our church building, work is needed on the tower, the roof and inner masonry. We are applying for various grants to help with the costs. We are also in dire need of rebuilding the vestry building attached to the rear of the church. The vestry is in a desperate state of repair with the flooring unsafe in places and the whole outer shell well past it's sell by date. We would like to demolish and rebuild this annex to the church and add the much needed facilities of a kitchenette area and a toilet enabling more people to visit and use the services we offer.

You can help us by supporting our fundraising events or if you shop online by donating through easyfundraising.org.uk. Every time you shop, you'll raise a donation for us and it won't cost you a penny extra.

Go to www.easyfundraising.org.uk/causes/holytrinitychurchqueenborough and follow the simple steps to sign up. When you shop online, visit easyfundraising first, click through to the retailer and shop as normal. Everything costs exactly the same but with every purchase you make you'll raise a donation from the retailer to our church.

Please contact the churchwardens if you can help us in any other way to preserve this beautiful historic church not just for us now but for the future generations to come.

Exciting Lottery Update

In September 2016 we were awarded a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund of £15,900. This money was the first stage in a bid to carry out essential repairs to the church, it was awarded to us to carry out all the development work that was needed before actual physical work could be carried out on the building. At the end of August 2017 the completion report was sent to the Heritage Lottery Fund and by the end of September we had completed the application forms for stage two  which would hopefully provide us with the money to actually carry out the repairs.

 Although there was little to be seen by the community as evidence we would like everyone to know that behind the scenes the money was well spent on a vast amount of paperwork, plans and reports alongside faculty permission which needed to be in place before the work could be started. We had archaeological investigations, a bat survey, reports on workmanship and materials, a management and maintenance plan, an access audit and works specification. All of these were available to the public at our open day in November. 

 The news that we had been successful in our second round application was announced at the special service attended by the Bishop of Dover. Held on Sunday 6th May 2018 as Queenborough celebrated the anniversary of Edward 111 awarding the royal Charter to the town the church was also celebrating the  past 650 years of the church built by Edward 111 and its much brighter looking future. The repair work began at once engulfing the tower and roofs in scaffolding and repairing not only the hidden structure of the building but the internal masonry which is more obvious to the public eye. The work continued throughout the summer and was completed at the end of October. The church remained open during the works. 

None of this work would have been possible without the exceptional help given to us by our architect John Bailey and his team from Thomas Ford & Partners guiding us through each step and the volunteers from the church helping out where ever they can. To them all we are truly grateful and pray for such wonderful continuing support in the future as we continue with our vision of rebuilding the vestry with new facilities to work alongside and enhance the heritage of the church.

Additional Award from Friends of Kent Churches

Alongside the award from the Heritage Lottery fund we have also been granted an award from The Friends Of Kent Churches of £2,255 towards the repair work, which will also cover essential drainage issues alongside the structural repairs. To all the trustees of the charities we would like to say a huge Thank you for having faith in us to spend the awards wisely in conserving the church building for future generations to enjoy both its heritage and its beautiful spiritual atmosphere.

Our Next Project

After our recent successful lottery bid and the completion of the repairs and conservation of the main church building our church moves forward and continues to expand our vision for the future. Due to an unexpected legacy donation for which we are extremely grateful we are able to fund the first phase of rebuilding our vestry. This involves developing the plans and obtaining the various permissions we need in order to proceed with the actual construction. Only when we have these permissions in place can we apply for more grants to cover the costs of the rebuild of which we have a shortfall of approx £120,000. The  new vestry has been a vision for Queenborough for well over 30 years. Our original estimate based on plans 12 years ago was for £180,000 now being in the position of having £132,000 in our designated fund costs have risen and we are looking at an estimate of £250,000. It was agreed to go ahead with phase one as without the permissions we are not eligible to apply for many grants and without them and all the support we have had and hope to continue to receive our visions and hopes for our growing church community will remain unfulfilled. If anyone would like to help through donations or fundraising ideas please contact the church wardens through our parsh office.  

Holy Trinity Queenborough

Benefactors

How you can help us

Please help support Holy Trinity Church Queenborough by shopping online.

Use easyfundraising to shop with over 3,600 retailers including Amazon, Argos, John Lewis, ASOS, Booking.com, eBay, Boden, and M&S.

Every time you shop, you’ll raise a free donation for Holy Trinity Church Queenborough every time, it’s that easy! 

Find out more: www.easyfundraising.org.uk/causes/holytrinitychurchqueenborough