Photography by David Oates
What happens to a church when it no longer has a congregation?
As church attendance in the UK continues to decline, that is a question being faced by many churches that were once the central hub of a community. Between 2014 and 2024, around 3,500 churches closed across the UK. In Wales, that equated to roughly a quarter of historic chapels and churches closing during the same period.
Shrinking congregations are one part of the problem – today, 20% of all the churches in England are in places where only 0.3% of the population live. Soaring repair and maintenance costs are also creating mounting financial pressures on churches. In particular, the recent closure of a VAT reclaim scheme for places of worship that meant some costs jumped overnight by 20%.
If a church in a town or city closes, there’s a good chance it may find a second life as housing, a gym or even a climbing centre. But in more remote, rural locations with dispersed populations, this is far less likely. In these instances, a church can close and spend years peacefully crumbling away, hosting bats, insects and creeping ivy.
Which is where the Friends of Friendless Churches (FoFC) comes in. It’s a charity dedicated to saving closed churches in England and Wales, and reopening them to be used and enjoyed by the local community and visitors alike.
FoFC was founded on 3 July 1957 in Committee Room 13 of the House of Commons, by Welsh politician, sportsman and journalist Ivor Bulmer-Thomas. (The founding group also included poets TS Eliot and John Betjeman.) Its aim was to “secure the preservation of churches and chapels … whether belonging to or formerly used by the Church of England or by any other religious body … for public access and the benefit of the nation.”
In 1972, the FoFC amended its constitution and began to take direct ownership of the buildings it was saving. Nearly 70 years later, it has 72 churches in its care.
David Farrington MRICS in Church of Saint Baglan, Llanfaglan, Wales
Choosing which churches to save
Keeping tabs on all those churches and their ongoing maintenance needs is FoFC’s estate officer, David Farrington MRICS. He joined in January 2025 after roles with Historic Royal Palaces, Historic England and most recently, the Diocese of Salford.
With finite resources, FoFC cannot save every church that is put forward for consideration. “We're a small charity, we don't get any public funding in England,” says Farrington. “We get a modest but very welcome grant in Wales. So we are largely reliant on our generous donors, legacies and membership subscriptions. We've got just over 3,900 members and it seems to be climbing, which is good news.”
Farrington says the trustees who choose which churches to save don’t have any set, rigid criteria and every case is considered on its own merits – but there are three broad principles:
- The church is redundant and not being used anymore. It will have gone through a formal closure process but still be consecrated.
- The church is remarkable. That usually means it is Grade I or II* listed.
- It’s usually in a very rural area. A church in a more built-up area has more possibilities for other uses and therefore funding.
As a conservation charity, they try to use like-for-like materials when carrying out repairs and apply the principles of the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings (SPAB). Which isn’t always easy when so many crafts and trades, that were common at the time the churches were built, are now vanishing.
He highlights the list of endangered crafts that have disappeared from this country or may not survive to the next generation: “Skills like producing mouth blown sheet glass. There's nobody in this country who makes that in any quantity now. You have to go to Europe.”
While he has paired each church with a local craft tradesperson, Farrington is also keen to point out how invaluable the FoFC’s network of local volunteers is in the upkeep of the churches. They are the people who keep a regular eye on the buildings, go in with brooms to keep things tidy and let him know if a slate has slipped or a patch of plaster has fallen off the walls.
“One of the biggest challenges is the fact that we have a very dispersed estate across England and Wales,” he says. “So we rely on establishing those good local relationships.”
“There is a need for more people who are able to demonstrate a specialist understanding and knowledge of historic buildings.” David Farrington MRICS, Friends of Friendless Churches
David Farrington MRICS in the entrance of Church of Saint Tyfrydog, Llandyfrydog, Wales
Specialising in conservation surveying
Farrington’s advice for anyone looking to build a career in conservation surveying is: “Go for it and be creative in terms of seeking out your own opportunities.”
He says there are a variety of ways to get relevant experience, for example shadowing a conservation officer in a local council to see how they manage their local historic environment through the planning system. Or working with a geospatial surveyor to get a handle on some of the latest digital technologies they use.
Farrington says he got to spend a week in a stained-glass studio just by asking if he could go along and learn more about what they do. Which contributed to getting as much practical experience as possible, for a more rounded understanding of the conservation world.
“There are benefits in getting specialist training and eventually becoming not only chartered, but also accredited,” he says. “Because the number of accredited building surveyors on the RICS building conservation register is quite limited. There is a need for more people who are able to demonstrate a specialist understanding and knowledge of historic buildings.”
One person Farrington credits as being a big help early on in his career is Stephen Bond, who was surveyor of the fabric at Historic Royal Palaces. “He was instrumental in giving me a break into the world of historic buildings and he was also the first chairman of the RICS Building Conservation Group.” Bond played a big part in setting up the RICS building conservation diploma, which at the time was run by the College of Estate Management.
It was while at Historic Royal Palaces that Farrington made his first appearance in Modus (then called Chartered Surveyor Monthly) in February 1997, as part of a campaign to recruit new people into the surveying profession.
David Farrington MRICS by the stained glass window of Church of Saint Tyfrydog, Llandyfrydog, Wales
Protecting the past from the future
While conservation surveying may involve a lot of looking back at historic building techniques and traditional materials, they must also look to the future and the changing weather patterns created by climate change. Recently this has meant increasing the size of guttering to deal with sudden heavy downpours or monitoring movement of churches caused by this year’s excessively dry summer.
“The main emphasis is that our investment keeps these buildings safe and secure,” he says. And the majority of the churches are then kept unlocked throughout the day so that visitors can come and go, regardless of faith.
The rewards of the job for Farrington are the simplicity of FoFC’s objective. “It might sound a little bit cheesy, but it’s very satisfying to work for a charity that has a really clear purpose,” he says. “We save closed places of worship. That's what we do. It's refreshing to be part of that. These sites are full of stories and memories and emotion, they're much more than just bricks and mortar.”
“These sites are full of stories and memories and emotion, they're much more than just bricks and mortar.” David Farrington MRICS, Friends of Friendless Churches
Church of Saint Baglan, Llanfaglan, Wales
Reason for Cadw designation: “Listed Grade I as a rare example of a medieval church unrestored in the 19th century, so retaining an exceptionally complete set of 18th century furnishings. Outstanding isolated setting.”
This church closed in the 1970s and FoFC took it on in 1991, in a state of serious disrepair. Now it is restored and open for the public to enjoy.
Farrington says the fact that it's named after Saint Baglan indicates how ancient the site is because he was a 6th century saint. Over the entrance door is an inscribed stone that's thought to date from the 6th century, possibly indicating pre-Christian origins as a site of worship.
“There's just something about it, the symbolism of this tiny church,” says Farrington. “Sitting in a circular churchyard in the middle of a field surrounded by a powerful landscape. It's difficult to put into words really.
“Then you walk inside and the church has largely escaped the hand of the Victorian restorer – it’s crammed full of 18th century fittings. There's an interesting social history to be told here because the box pews closest to the altar and the pulpit are the biggest and most comfortable. And then the further you get away the box pews turn into a very simple bench.”
Church of Saint Tyfrydog, Llandyfrydog, Wales
Reason for Cadw designation: “A good medieval rural church which retains much of its medieval fabric and a rich vernacular character.”
Having closed in 2020, Saint Tyfrydog’s was taken on by FoFC in 2025. Its repair is scheduled to be complete by summer 2027. The earliest dateable fabric in the nave is 14th century and the chancel appears to have been rebuilt in the late 15th or early 16th century.
Like St Baglan’s, it has avoided heavy-handed restoration work in the past. However, some of the outer walls are so thick with ivy that it’s growing up and under the eaves and into the church. There are holes in the roof where slates have come off and daylight is clearly visible from the inside. All the plaster needs replacing and timber floors inside have decayed due to dampness.
All of which means it will need a lot of work, but with the FoFC’s stated aim to “rescue and repair historic buildings, by undertaking gentle repairs, sensitive restoration, and careful conservation”. Or, as Farrington puts it: “We want our churches to be loved but not scrubbed.”
