St Cuthbert’s Church and Haydon Old Church, Haydon Bridge Inspired Futures Project: Way Forward Report Inspired Futures Project: Way Forward Report for St Cuthbert’s Church & Haydon Old Church, Haydon Bridge Contents Executive summary 3 Short term 3 Medium term 3 Longer term 4 1. Church - key information 5 2. General Context 5 2.1. Background history 5 2.2. Location 6 2.3. Area demographic 6 2.3.1. Overview 5 2.3.2. Needs 7 2.3.3. Opportunities 7 3. Heritage 7 3.1. Needs 7 3.2. Opportunities 7 4. Mission and purpose 8 4.1. Needs 8 4.2. Opportunities 8 5. Community 8 5.1. Needs 8 5.2. Opportunities 8 6. Capacity 9 7. Adaptability 9 8. Project 9 8.1. Vision 9 8.2. Ideas and options 10 9. Funding potential 10 10. People resources 11 11. Income potential 11 12. Key risks 12 13. SWOT analysis 12 Appendix A: St Cuthbert’s Church & Haydon Old Church Background Research Notes Appendix B: Further Guidance and Examples Page 2 of 18 Inspired Futures Project: Way Forward Report for St Cuthbert’s Church & Haydon Old Church, Haydon Bridge Executive summary St Cuthberts and Haydon Old Church are both listed buildings (Grade II* and I) located in the village of Haydon Bridge, Northumberland. A Project Group has been recently formed – made up of members of the PCC and wider community - which has begun to explore extended use options for both sites. The Group wish to re-establish both sites as key community spaces for the residents of Haydon Bridge and beyond. The Group are aware that there is work to be done in terms of developing the vision for both sites and have already begun to look at need in the area: they are aware of services lacking in the community and are now at a point where they need to develop an evidence base of need through external consultation (following on from work already undertaken to date). The Project Group requires support to help maintain momentum and take this project forward and is in a fortunate position of having access to funds that can help drive initial project development. The project has huge potential to enhance the tourism offer for visitors to Haydon Bridge as well as improve the connectivity between the sites. The Project Group have the skills, connections and drive to take this forward - with support – and recognise that an important step forward is to begin discussions with prospective partners and supporters in the wider area to build on the offer that the project can provide. The executive summary provides a view on the priority actions for the church and PCC. These have been summarised into short, medium and long term actions. They should be read alongside the full report and ideally the actions recommended within the document should all be addressed through an action plan – but the following are seen as the most important priorities. An appendix provides links to further guidance on the specific reports and processes suggested and, where possible, relevant examples. The PCC is encouraged to discuss these recommendations and come to an agreed view on the priorities. An important outcome should be the implementation of the actions in this executive summary. Actions are more defined in the short and medium term, because as the project evolves different actions will arise from the earlier work. Short term Consultation planning - start to prepare a plan for consulting the local community on what local people need and want the churches to provide. Ensure activities and events proposed are fun and will get new people through the doors; Begin discussions with other organisations - in Haydon Bridge, the local council, Haydon Bridge Development Trust, the wider tourism community and local landowners (e.g. the National Parks and the National Trust) on the potential for future involvement and partnership work. Medium term Project governance - establish the governance of the project group, identifying peoples/organisational roles ,defining offers of support, identifying skills gaps and preparing a clear terms of reference for the project; Recruit - new members and/or advisors to the Project Group based on identified skills gaps; Consultation and activity testing - continue community consultation activity and use feedback to inform and develop project outputs and outcomes. Continue to test out new activities and undertake market research to inform project need and demand; Communications - develop communications plan for the project. Page 3 of 18 Inspired Futures Project: Way Forward Report for St Cuthbert’s Church & Haydon Old Church, Haydon Bridge Longer term Business planning - seek funding to support the development of an outline business plan which sets out how the sites will be financially sustainable (e.g. project development grant from the Architectural Heritage Fund); Statement of Need - Define scope of project with clearly defined objectives and develop a Statement of Need which outlines what physical changes are required to meet project objectives; Assessment of Significance - seek funding (e.g. from the HLF Start up Grant programme) to commission an Assessment of Significance for the building and after completion, funding to develop concept designs and costs for the project based on the outline business plan and a Statement of Need. Page 4 of 18 Inspired Futures Project: Way Forward Report for St Cuthbert’s Church & Haydon Old Church, Haydon Bridge 1. Church - key information Diocese: Newcastle Local Authority: Northumberland Postcode: Heritage Status: Haydon Old Church (NE47 6JX) Haydon Old Church- Listed Grade I Full listing description available here St Cuthbert ‘s Church (NE47 6LL) St Cuthbert’s - Listed Grade II* Full listing description available here Key Contact: Mr David Thornhill , Church Warden, The Rev’d Dr Benjamin Carter, Vicar 2. General Context 2.1. Background history Highlights from Grade I listing description for Haydon Old Church: ‘Former Parish Church. Chancel 12th century, south chapel 14th century. West end, 1882 by C.C. Hodges’; ‘Squared stone including re-used Roman material, stone slate roof’; ‘Chancel with two-bay south chapel. South wall of chapel has round-headed chamfered doorway. Three-light square-headed window with hollow-chamfered jambs and mullions and altered 12th century single-light window’; ‘East wall of chapel has 14th-century window of two cinquefoil headed lights with flowing tracery over. South wall of chancel has 12th century single-light window, round-headed and rebated externally. Three similar windows in the east wall, the head of the central pointed’; ‘West end of 19th century with two lancets, stepped buttress, two-light window in 14th-century style and large buttress incorporating remains of former east window of nave south aisle’; Interior: ‘19th-century, two-bay arcade to chapel has circular column and pointed arches’; ‘Good 19th-century roof with heavy king-post trusses. Various 17th-century and 18th-century floor slabs and wall monuments’; ‘Inscribed 14th-century cross slab on south side of chancel floor, another cross slab re-used as internal lintel to south door and fragments of others set in recess of blocked north chancel door’; ‘Font a re-cut Roman altar’. Highlights from Grade II* listing description for St Cuthbert’s Church: ‘Parish church. 1796, north transept added 1865, chancel enlarged and south elevation gothicised 1898’; ‘Tooled and margined ashlar on south, rubble on north re-used from the medieval church and including squared Roman stones’; Page 5 of 18 Inspired Futures Project: Way Forward Report for St Cuthbert’s Church & Haydon Old Church, Haydon Bridge ‘Nave, west tower, north transept and chancel. Tower divided by bands into three stages, with projecting moulded cornice and swept pyramidal roof. Lower stage has 19th-century, pointed-arched door on south, sundial dated '1796' over and round-headed window with renewed latticed glazing bars above’; ‘Similar windows on west, the upper one blind, and stone external stair on north up to tall round-headed doorway, farmer gallery access’; Interior features include ‘a late l9th-century chancel arch, roof and most furnishings. 18th- century Royal Arms on west wall. Late 19th-century marble font. Glass by Kempe in chancel windows. Damaged 14th-century effigy under crocketed canopy and 17th- century carving of angel, brought from old church’; ‘The church was erected by the Greenwich Hospital Commissioners in 1796. The north transept was added in 1869 to accommodate children from the Shaftoe Trust School’. These two churches stand in the same parish but only one, St Cuthbert’s in the village of Haydon Bridge, still serves as a parish church. Before 1796 when St Cuthbert’s was built, the 12th-century Haydon Old Church was a Chapel of Ease in the Parish of Warden (as was St Cuthbert’s until the establishment of the Parish of Haydon Bridge in 1879). Haydon village and its old church were gradually displaced by the growing settlement at the nearby crossing point of the River Tyne. As residents moved they did not leave the old Church behind entirely – they demolished the tower and all the rest of the west end and used the salvaged material in the building of the new church, leaving behind just the chancel, south chapel and graveyard without much of a purpose. So, in many ways the two churches are inseparable, both now being managed by the one PCC. Haydon Old Church dates mainly from the twelfth, fourteenth and nineteenth centuries and is listed Grade I, while St Cuthbert’s is Grade II*. Other heritage assets also in the historic village of Haydon Bridge include the War Memorial (1920 Grade II), Station Cottages (c. 1835 Grade II), Anchor Hotel (18th century, 19th century and 20th century Grade II), alms houses (c. 1805 Grade II), the Old Bridge (c.