THE DAVID HARDY FUND

Caring for Claverdon Church and Church Centre for the future

Help to care for Claverdon’s heritage!

Can you help us with our plans to update and repair Claverdon Church and Church Centre?

Claverdon Church – at the heart of village life for centuries, a much-loved place for worship, celebration and sanctuary - requires some significant work.  For example the church walls need re-plastering, and the churchyard gates restoring.

The Church Centre, another valued community meeting place, is approaching its 50th anniversary and showing its age.  It would be wonderful to make some repairs and give it a good make-over in time to celebrate its half-century of service to the village later this year. 

The bill will be well over £100,000 – far more than the church community can afford on its own. So we have launched an appeal – the David Hardy Fund, in memory of a villager who devoted much of his life to caring for our church buildings. 

Thanks to the generosity of many people and organisations, including our Parish Council, we have now raised over £40,000. This has enabled us to re-tarmac the Church Centre carpark; repaint the Church Centre gates, fences and internal spaces; and shortly will be replacing many of the Church Centre chairs. In Church we have started to repair and replace the Churchyard gates, and have scheduled for 2027 the re-rendering of the church’s interior walls - an expensive project (c£12,000) which will involve restricting access to the Church for a few weeks.

More fundraising events are planned, including a weekend in October to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the laying of the foundation stone of the Church Centre, Fundraising will be targeted on replacing the entrance doors of the Centre. An auction of promises is also planned for Spring 2027.

All donations to the David Hardy Fund will be held in a ring-fenced account with Claverdon Parochial Church Council, to be used solely for the purposes of the upkeep of the Church and Church Centre buildings and their contents.

A report will be made each year of the Fund’s accounts - showing monies raised and the areas on which expenditure has taken place.

If you are able to help, we would be extremely grateful!

PROJECTS NEEDING SUPPORT

To keep buildings in a good state of repair needs constant attention. Here are some of the main items from the current list of items needing repair or renovation, with their estimated cost - in total over £100,000.

IN CHURCH:

immediate:

• re-rendering and redecoration of internal walls in north and south aisles and chancel - £12,000

• restoration and rehanging of damaged churchyard gates - £10,000

• replacement of worn-out audio-visual equipment - £7,000

coming up soon:

• replacement of church heating system - c£30,000

IN THE CHURCH CENTRE:

• completing the new heating installation and removal of old boilers etc, to be followed later by solar panel installation - £20,000

coming up soon - in readiness for the 50th anniversary of the Centre’s foundation:

• new entrance doors and porch - £12,000

• replace hall chairs - £4,000

• total internal redecoration and some flooring - £5,000

• car park repairs and re-lining - £20,000