King Charles the Martyr Church celebrates after receiving £20,000 of National Lottery funding to renovate their church hall roof

Local church King Charles the Martyr is celebrating after being awarded £20,000 in National Lottery funding towards the urgent renovation of its church hall roof.

King Charles the Martyr is a Grade I-listed church that was opened in 1678. A stunning example of a Restoration church, people come from far and wide to see its ceilings, designed by plasterers closely associated to Sir Christopher Wren.

The church hall, a stone’s throw away from the Pantiles, was built in 1916. It is a much-loved space in the centre of town, used by a wide range of community groups, from our local MP’s surgery to AGMs for local business to ballet classes. Unfortunately, the building’s roof has fallen into a very poor state, with regular leaks threatening to damage the structure of the building and make it unusable. King Charles the Martyr are urgently raising funds to renovate the roof, as well as install a disabled-access ramp to improve the hall’s accessibility, with works planned to start this summer.

The new funding from The National Lottery Community Fund, which distributes money raised by National Lottery players for good causes and is the largest community funder in the UK, will see this thriving community centre renovated so it can continue to serve the citizens of Tunbridge Wells and beyond for years to come.

Richard Morrice, Churchwarden and Head of the Fabric Committee at King Charles the Martyr, says:“We’re absolutely thrilled that the National Lottery Awards for All programme has recognised our work in this way. Thanks to National Lottery players, we are one step closer to being able to make this urgent renovation to our roof so that the church hall can remain a vibrant, thriving community centre in the heart of Tunbridge Wells for years to come. 

The National Lottery Community Fund recently launched its strategy, ‘It starts with community’, which will underpin its efforts to distribute at least £4 billion of National Lottery funding by 2030. 

As part of this, the funder has four key missions, which are to support communities to come together, be environmentally sustainable, help children and young people thrive and enable people to live healthier lives.

National Lottery players raise over £30 million a week for good causes across the UK. Thanks to them, last year (2023/24) The National Lottery Community Fund awarded over half a billion pounds (£686.3 million) of life-changing funding to communities across the UK, supporting over 13,700  projects to turn their great ideas into reality. 

To find out more visit www.TNLCommunityFund.org.uk