Resources
- Diocese of Chester DAC Technical Advice on buildings maintenance and improvements, health and safety, Church Halls, and guidance on legal permissions for making changes to church buildings
- Church of England's ChurchCare Guidance. A wealth of guidance on caring for and developing church buildings
Further guidance
- A missional heart for connecting with communities - these short videos by the Church Mission Society may be of inspiration. Also see videos 6-10
- Crossing the Threshold Toolkit - by the Diocese of Hereford. This is a comprehensive publication, which includes a section on developing the vision for the building
- Resources on the ChurchBuild website:
- Toolkit - 'Is Your Church a Millstone or Springboard?' - This simple assessment took helps identify the strengths and areas for improvement with the church building.
- Buildings Audit Toolkit. This toolkit captures the narrative of how the church building has developed over time and its current role, to help shape future thinking about change.
- Pizzamat - facilitating early conversations. A3 sheet asking prompt questions to help faciliate early conversations.
- Historic England, Places of Worship guidance. This includes guidance on maintenance and making changes to places of worship once the vision is clear
- Easy Access To Historic Buildings, by Historic England
- Access and inclusion guidance from the Diocese of Chester
More resources
- Taylor Review Pilot workshop materials. See the 'workshop materials' section for a variety of advice, including 'Planning and Managing Change part 1 - Turning a vision into an action plan.' Resources have been developed by a partnership project between Historic England and the Churches Conservation Trust
- 'A Design Thinking Guide', produced by Empowering Design Practices research project exploring how places of worship are redeveloped
- Building Project Preparations - what are the key questions to ask? Here are suggestions provided by John Truscott, a freelance church consultant and trainer
- Rural Church Buildings, by Germinate. A toolkit for caring for and developing church buildings
- Stories worth sharing
You may be interested to take a look at recent church building projects:
- Church halls- new and redeveloped examples from across the Diocese
- New facilities (kitchenettes and loos) examples from across the Diocese
Diocese of Chester support
- Caroline Hilton, DAC Secretary, on caroline.hilton@chester.anglican.org and Katy Purvis, assistant on katy.purvis@chester.anglican.org (advice on permissions, possiblities)
- Your church architect is also a great source of advice