Campaigners launch bid to raise £2m to save Sir Tom’s favourite Preston church – and with it their own community

A campaign has been launched to raise an estimated £2m to bring Preston's landmark Emmanuel Church back to life eight years after it was condemned and shut down on safety grounds.

Members of the church congregation, who have been worshipping in the Plungington Community Centre next door since 2014, have set up the city's first Community Land Trust to run the project.

Leaders say they want the whole of Plungington to get behind the scheme to restore the Grade II Listed building and turn it into 14 affordable apartments and a space for community use and worship. And they are hoping it will act as a catalyst for regenerating the area after years of neglect.

"It's quite ambitious, yes," said Joyce Willacy one of the board members of the Plungington CLT. "CLTs are a relatively new thing, but they are really taking hold.

"We find the idea of taking an existing building and giving it a different use - dual purpose with housing and community and worship space all under one roof - really exciting. But we're not professionals and so we're learning as we go along."

Emmanuel Church, in Brook Street, was built between 1868 and 1870 and at its peak it saw hundreds worship there every Sunday. In 1945 footballer Tom Finney married his bride Elsie there. Their two children, Brian and Barbara, were also baptised in the church. The Victorian building has fallen into disrepair over the years and has stood empty and forlorn since experts closed it down because of its precarious state. Dry rot was discovered in multiple parts and it was declared a no-go area, even for the vicar.

A report to the council's planning committee in 2020 said: "The condition of the building is poor and deteriorating further. A new use is being sought for part of the building to ensure its repair and survival." At that time surveyors estimated it could cost up to £500,000 just to bring the church back into use. Now that figure has quadrupled.

The company behind the idea of rescuing Emmanuel was Zimbabwe-based Consolidated African Ventures (UK) Ltd. Director Dr William Moore's family came from Preston and his parents first met while singing in the church choir. He wanted to save the building in memory of his mother and father after hearing it was in danger of being knocked down. He drew up plans for 14 apartments, with a communal space where church services could resume.

But Dr Moore, who was a permanent resident of Zimbabwe, died in March 2019 before he could see the scheme come to fruition. His son Rob picked up the baton and submitted a planning application. But he has now been reluctantly forced to abandon his dad's scheme due to the financial effects of the Covid pandemic on business.

Undaunted, the congregation and the local community have got together and decided they will take on the Herculean task of raising up to £2m to see it through via the Plungington Community Land Trust. They held a launch meeting in the community centre in August and are in the process of electing a 12-strong board.

They are planning on an open day on January 28 when they hope to rally more local support for the scheme. But Joyce Willacy admits they will need a strong tail wind to capture the attention of an area of Preston which has lost much of its identity in recent years.

"What we are finding at the moment is that the community don't seem to believe it will happen, so they are not showing a great deal of interest just yet," she explained. "We are getting some real enthusiasm from some people, but the majority perhaps don't believe it. The people of Plungington are quite disillusioned as an area.

"I go to PACT meetings and there is such a lot of demoralisation here. That is something we really want to change. As a Community Land Trust we will hopefully see this as a catalyst to regenerate the whole area of Plungington."

Before the scheme can get off the ground the CLT say they have to be sure it is feasible. And that will involve an up-to-date structural survey of the building to see how far the church has deteriorated since the last inspection closed it down in 2014.

"We need to see how things are in there and we need an up-to-date cost estimate to assess if the project is viable," added Joyce. "That survey will cost quite a lot of money and we have a grant now to enable us to carry that out. Once we get the survey done, and assuming the scheme is viable, then we will be able to approach external funders. We have no finances at the moment so as things stand it is very much on hold."

The Plungington CLT has brought in an ethical property developer, 123 Accommodation from Merseyside, to take the scheme forward. The building is owned by the Church of England Church Commissioners, but the plan is for the developer to take over ownership with a proviso that they sell it back to the CLT in due course to make it community owned.

Emmanuel Church has no vicar at present after Rev Peter Hamborg moved to the north of the county in April. Rev Hamborg oversaw the building's closure and the congregation's relocation to the community centre next door.

He told the Post: "This project needs support in order to succeed, and nobody wants to support something that is portrayed as being unlikely to happen or a lost cause. The truth is that the project has plenty of mileage.

"The Community Land Trust model has been tried and tested elsewhere in the country, and a gifted team of people are working hard to deliver these inspirational plans for the closed church, plans which already have the support and approval of Preston City Council.

"Personally speaking, I worked incredibly hard when I was the vicar to get these plans to where they are, and I could not be prouder of those who are now continuing to deliver this project through the medium of the Plungington Community Land Trust. There is a growing sense of momentum, as local people are coming together to turn vision into reality.

"I am not the only one who has fought for the cause of saving this beautiful heritage building, in a part of Preston that needs something special to happen. Rob Moore, and his father Bill before he died, gave a great deal to the project, both of their time and their money. We owe it to them to see through the vision which Bill Moore started.

"It is disappointing for Rob that he had to withdraw; however, the Community Land Trust model is arguably more dynamic than the one that we were pursuing previously. Instead of having property owned by a private individual, the local people will own this land asset, including the apartments, and the Land Trust will plough back all the proceeds into the local area for the benefit of local people."