Our story

All Saints Benington, a Grade I listed medieval church dating back to around 1200, held its final service in 2001 and was declared officially closed in 2003. Efforts to find a buyer were unsuccessful and the building began to suffer increasing decay, exacerbated by a lead theft that necessitated urgent roof repairs (carried out in 2012 with the assistance of WREN). It was consequently placed on Historic England’s register of ‘Heritage at Risk’.

The closure of the church was a final blow for Benington, a village of around 500 people in East Lincolnshire. The post office, village shop, doctor's surgery, butcher and school had all been lost and the village hall – a wooden pre-fab structure unfit for 21^st-century needs – had reached the end of its life. The effects of social isolation and the loss of vital support services were becoming increasingly evident in this rural community and the closure of the church was felt as the loss of the village's beating heart.

All Saints boarded up, 2012 (Historic England)

Spurred on by the sight of the church boarded up, villagers came together to form first the Friends of All Saints and subsequently Benington Community Heritage Trust. Extensive consultation was carried out to identify potential re-uses that would restore the village's heart, providing a sustainable future not only for this nationally important historic building but also for community life in a dispersed rural parish.

Having worked with local residents, groups and businesses throughout the project we are delighted to have been highlighted as 'a true community led success story' that exemplifies 'how rural communities can come together and find a sustainable future for historic assets and community life as a whole'. It is a source of great pride that 'The Beonna continues to inspire many other groups to take charge of the future of their Parish church and save it from redundancy and decline' and we are always keen to hear from other groups considering taking similar action.

Those interested in finding out more about our story are warmly invited to our Community Regeneration Day, hosted in partnership with the Churches Conservation Trust.

King Beonna rules East Anglia

People have lived in Benington since the Anglo Saxons, if not earlier, and this early medieval settlement may have had royal links. The place name Benington is believed to come from the Old English phrase for the 'Farmstead (ton) of the people (ing) of Beonna’ - ‘Beonna-ing-ton’.

Raising the Roof

All Saints continued to grow upwards and outwards in the late Middle Ages, when the nave roof was raised and a second level of windows (the clerestory) was installed. The western bell tower and the porch to the south were also added, creating the late medievalfootprint that we know today.

Victorian Splendour

Nothing stands still. From the elaborate wall paintings that would have been seen in the Middle Ages to the austere whitewashing and iconoclasm brought by the Puritans, All Saints has always been a living building keeping alive the changing beliefs, fashions and needs of its users. The Tractarian-inspired, 'high', renovations overseen in the 1870s by the Victorian architect James Fowler of Louth are still impressive today.