About Us

The landscape of Staffordshire presents a variety of contrasting faces – from the Moorlands in the north of the county to Cannock Chase in the south and the Vale of Trent in the centre.

In addition to this rich profusion of natural beauty, Staffordshire’s heritage includes a wealth of churches which have formed the focus of community life, often for centuries. The villages towns and cities of historic Staffordshire include Lichfield and Stafford, and the industrial centres of the Potteries and the Black Country, and their churches range from pre-Norman village churches over 1000 years old to masterpieces of Victorian Gothic. These buildings, each one of them unique, are still loved and treasured, even by those who choose not to attend them regularly.

There are over 500 churches in Staffordshire; about one third are listed as Grade I or Grade II* buildings of historic importance.

But the price of this beauty and history is high. It costs a lot of money to keep a church in good repair. Weather takes its toll on stonework, brickwork and roofing. Gutters, woodwork and stained glass windows also suffer from the effects of age and require repair and restoration. Many of the materials and techniques used in maintaining historic church buildings are expensive.

SHCT exists to help fund this work, and at the same time remind people what a wonderful heritage of church buildings we have in our county

You can help by joining the Staffordshire Historic Churches Trust.

To see the Annual Report for 2020/21 please see accounts page

History

The ’Friends of Ancient Staffordshire Churches’ was founded as a charity in 1953 with the aim of making grants for the restoration of churches in the county. Money for this was raised by membership subscriptions and special fundraising efforts.

In 1982 the name was changed to Staffordshire Historic Churches Trust - still including Walsall, Wolverhampton and West Bromwich which in 1974  had become part of the new West Midlands county. In 1987 the annual sponsored cycle ride (later cycle and walk) was inaugurated which led to a significant increase in funds.

In the 60 years since formation over 300 churches have been assisted, some more than once. This includes churches of many denominations – Church of England, Methodist, Roman Catholic, United Reformed Church, Quaker, Unitarian, Congregational and Independent.