In 1954, a grieving man came to St James’s Church in Llangua, Monmouthshire. Ivor Bulmer-Thomas was not there to worship but to work and, in memory of his late wife, Dilys, he set about restoring the 12th-century church. A few years later, he set up the charity Friends of Friendless Churches.
Almost 70 years on, the charity is coming to save St James’s once again but this time armed with a £769,000 heritage grant and a renewal of Bulmer-Thomas’s mission to save many more of these little citadels of our history.
“It is a new era for church conservation,” Rachel Morley, the director of the charity, said. There has been a surge in interest, a rise in membership, a significant new donor and, crucially, a
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