Royal backing for book celebrating church preservers

Saving Churches celebrates the work and 50th anniversary of national charity the Friends of Friendless Churches.

The charity was established in the late 1950s by journalist and author Ivor Bulmer Thomas, who was determined to save ancient, beautiful but redundant churches from degradation and demolition.

Prince Charles, writes in the introduction: "The buildings saved by The Friends may have been 'friendless' when they faced demolition or abandonment, but once in their care they are no longer unloved. Maybe the charity should be re-termed 'The Friends of Befriended Churches', but then that doesn't have quite the same ring."

Built in 1775, Lightcliffe Old St Matthew was a classical preaching box, replaced by a new church built only a few hundred yards away in the late 19th century. The church was then used as a mortuary chapel, but following serious storm damage in the 1960s it fell into decay.

The Bishop of Wakefield pressed for total demolition, but Bulmer-Thomas fought hard to at least preserve the tower.

It was passed formally to the Friends on a 99-year lease in 1974.

From its campaigning roots, the charity now acquires and cares for significant churches that would otherwise be abandoned or subject to inappropriate conversion.

Today, it cares for 38 Grade I or Grade II* listed places of worship in England and Wales, some in ruins, others in complete condition. All share a common bond in that they are romantically remote or situated in rural locations.

Saving Churches: Friends of Friendless Churches – The First 50 Years will be published in hardback on May 27 by Frances Lincoln Ltd. (16.99).