History

The Lincolnshire Churches Trust was set up in the wake of the Archbishops’ Commission on Historic Churches. Following preliminary meetings The Lincolnshire Old Churches Trust was formally inaugurated on 10 October 1953 under the active presidency of the Earl of Ancaster, Lord Lieutenant of Lincolnshire, who took the chair at all but one of the trustees’ meetings from then until his retirement thirty years later. The other founding trustees were drawn from leaders in the church and community and from the start they worked hard to arouse local interest by public meetings and publications. In 2008 the Trust name was formally changed to Lincolnshire Churches Trust as it was felt that the inclusion of the word “old” was confusing to supporters as LCT does not support redundant churches. The Trust is non-denominational and assists Christian churches or other buildings used for public worship for the time being, so long as the aid requested meets the Charity’s criteria.

Historic Lincolnshire is more than 100 miles in length and contains over 700 churches. This means the area for which Lincolnshire Churches Trust is responsible remains as it was before the local government changes in 1973, i.e. churches and places of worship in North and North East Lincolnshire (formerly South Humberside) are part of its remit.

Before the Trust Deed was completed the founders were discussing the opening of country house gardens as a means of raising money for grants. Since then thanks to the kindness of landowners, gardeners and plants-people this has remained a popular addition to Sundays throughout the county and is now widely copied by other local and national charities.

Another important source of both fundraising and publicity for the Trust was the inauguration of the annual Sponsored Cycle ride in 1984. During its first year it raised £29,000 to be divided between the Trust and the riders’ own churches. Since then it has continued to be a valuable source of revenue for both the Trust and riders’ churches and has now been re-named “Ride and Stride” to include walkers, runners, those using wheelchairs or mobility scooters and horse riders as well as cycle riders.

Since its inception the Trust has given grants of more than £1,750,000 (in today’s money) for the preservation, and repair of Churches in Lincolnshire in order to keep them open as places of active worship. Grant giving during the first decade of the new millennium was greatly enhanced by generous block donations from WREN (Waste Recycling Environmental) totalling around £800,000.

LCT Trustees are drawn from the length and breadth of Lincolnshire and encompass many different areas of expertise. The Trust is honoured and proud that HRH The Prince of Wales is its Patron.