All Saints Elm Church Saved by £295,879 Historic England Grant November 2026

Rain was getting in, stone was crumbling, and the medieval tower of All Saints Church in Elm needed work the village could not pay for on its own. Then came a number the whole parish could hold on to: £295,879. Historic England announced in October that the Grade I listed church had won that sum from the Places of Worship Renewal Fund, and on 1 November 2026 the Elm Community Hub shared the news with a plain verdict.

Combined with earlier grants and local fundraising, the church has now raised all the funds needed, as currently forecast, to make the building waterproof and dry.

The project has a name that says exactly what it is for: "All Saints' Elm; A Church: A Community: Keeping the water out – Welcoming everyone in." Phase 2, funded by the Historic England grant, completes a wider repair and renewal programme. It addresses masonry and repointing to the tower and north aisle, rainwater goods, lead flashings, spire and tower roof, and drainage, the community hub reports. Completing the repairs will help protect the medieval church and enable the next phase: a community hub within the west end of the building.

All Saints Elm £295,879 Grant and National Lottery Heritage Fund

The £295,879 did not arrive alone. Combined with the National Lottery Heritage Fund grant awarded earlier this year of £249,959.58, £2,000 from the Cambridgeshire Historic Churches Trust and funds raised by the Parochial Church Council and the All Saints' Friends group, the church has raised all the funds needed to perform all the repairs required, the hub reports. The figures are given to the penny for the lottery grant, which tells its own story about how carefully a village project must count.

Nothing here is rounded up for effect. The total is what it costs to stop the water.

The path to the grant began early this summer, the hub explains. The project already had a faculty, the permission from church authorities to do the repair work, an architectural specification of what was required, and supporting documentation ready to go. The team completed an expression of interest and was invited to complete a full application.

In October, Historic England announced the award. Readiness, not luck alone, put Elm in a position to be chosen. A church that had its papers in order when the new fund opened was ready to be helped.

What happens next is slower than the announcement. Right now the architects are preparing to conduct a tender process to appoint contractors, the hub reports. That preparation will involve digging test pits in the graveyard to identify how the drains for the church do, and do not, work.

With that information contractors can be appointed and the repairs can commence. Once the pits are dug it will take some time before work begins, due to lead times and material availability. The hub currently expects the repairs to be completed in 2027.

A grant announcement is a beginning, and the village is honest about the wait still ahead.

Places of Worship Renewal Fund £41 Million for 74 Heritage Sites

Elm is one small part of a much larger national decision. On 15 October 2026 the goverment announced over £41 million of investment to repair and renovate 74 heritage and faith buildings across England, GOV.UK reports. The Places of Worship Renewal Fund and the Heritage at Risk Capital Fund are part of the wider £1.5 billion Arts Everywhere Fund.

Together they will protect 74 sites, the government says, reinvigorating local pride and ensuring people can continue to visit and benefit from their local heritage buildings long into the future.

The Places of Worship Renewal Fund will share over £18 million between 51 recipients, GOV.UK reports. The list ranges from nationally renowned minsters to churches and synagogues in areas of greatest need. Birmingham Cathedral will receive major works to halt the deterioration of its famous tower and dome.

The Church of St Elwyn in Hayle, Cornwall, will receive repointing and masonry repairs to prevent water penetration, along with new rainwater systems. The Sir Moses Montefiore Memorial Synagogue in Grimsby, the only remaining synagogue in Lincolnshire and South Humberside, will be supported to continue its restoration programme. All Saint's Church, Elm, appears by name in the East of England section of the full recipients list published by GOV.UK.

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The test pits in the Elm graveyard have not been dug yet, the contractors have not been appointed, and the tower still waits for its scaffolding. What has changed is simpler and more precious: the money to do the work is now counted, the plans are ready, and a medieval church that was letting in rain can look toward a dry 2027 and a community hub in its west end. The next chapter will be written in stone dust and drainage, one careful repair at a time.

But the most surprising part of this story is yet to come — keep reading.