Rising from the rubble

Andrew Vaux discovers how High Toyton’s community spirit helped rebuild their historic local church tower after disaster struck.

When residents in the quiet rural village of High Toynton near Horncastle woke up one cold January morning in 2020, they could scarcely believe their eyes.

Overnight, the church tower of St John the Baptist Church, which dates back to 1872, had been reduced to a pile of dusty rubble. Despite previous concerns about the stability of the tower, which was known for its distinctive and unusual octagonal upper storey and short spire, no-one knew for sure what had caused its sudden demise.

But what they did know was that they had to rally round to make sure that the focus of village life could be rebuilt and back serving the community as quickly as possible.

Within days, generous local benefactors had dug deep into their pockets to offer funds – and almost £12,000 had been raised amongst the 65 residents in the quiet village.

Resident Alison Bell, also secretary of St John the Baptist Church, vividly remembers the shock of that Sunday morning five years ago.

“We did some work at the end of the 1980s and early 1990s, underpinning it twice, but there was still a lot of debris coming down into the porch every time we went in.

“The day before the tower collapsed, my husband went to open the church, which a villager did every day in line with the insurance agreement. The church door was stuck and when it didn’t open after giving it a big push, he went to get one of his friends and they decided to put a note on the door warning people of danger and advising them not to try opening it until we’d called an architect out to see what was going on.

By 10.30am the following day, the tower had completely fallen down!”

Alison adds: “We live opposite the church and my cousin rang and said, ‘have you seen the church?’ I couldn’t believe what I saw and within minutes the whole village gathered in a state of shock.”

Assessing the damage
It wasn’t long before the true impact of the collapse was realised by the shocked parishioners.

By the end of the day, East Lindsey District Council had issued a Section 78 Notice, which meant that the building had to be made secure – the village knew they had an immense task ahead of them.

Alison says: “We didn’t consider the cost at first, we just got on with it. Several people in the village loaned us money and it cost us £32,000 just to put scaffolding up. We were very lucky in that, because it was high profile, we received a lot of donations which probably made up at least half the cost of the scaffolding.

“It’s not a big village. There are probably only about 65 people here, but everyone rallied round and we were extremely grateful for their kindness.

“We immediately decided we needed the church. Not because we’re a desperately religious village, but it’s the only place where we have a chance of coming together. That’s why we decided to do whatever we could to save it.

“We were also very lucky as the vicar of Horncastle, who looks after our parish, had a brother who was just about to leave Lincoln Cathedral to set up a consultancy business managing large fundraising projects.

“He said he’d be very happy for his business to take us on and see how far we could get.”

Rubble and restoration
When parishioners heard they’d received a £200,000 grant through the National Lottery Heritage Foundation, they thought all their problems were over. But this wasn’t the case. Representatives at the NLHF thought the first part of the project to remove the rubble would be simple, so they didn’t involve the project managers.

Alison explains: “This was a mistake as we needed someone who’d fully understand all the detailed processes we needed to go through.

“The architect got the stone mason ready to go, presuming I had the necessary permissions. I’d been given slightly enigmatic advice by the Diocese and it turned out that we needed a full faculty [permission] which would take months, with the result that work couldn’t be started that year.

“In retrospect this was the greatest learning point of the project. The word ‘permissions’ opened a door on a convoluted bureaucratic maze with a host of unexpected destinations – from boreholes to bat monitoring with a plethora of surveys and assessments. Public money brings with it huge responsibility.

“At this stage we told the NLHF that we could not successfully negotiate this minefield without our project managers.

“We got them back and the first thing they did was get everyone together and find out exactly what people wanted. They were absolutely brilliant.

“We pulled together lots of ideas about what we wanted to do with the church. This went beyond worship. We wanted a space where we could come together and meet, run craft workshops, perform plays and hold events for children.”

History and heritage
A parish church at this location was first mentioned in the 13th century, although it is likely that a Saxon church existed. Dedicated in honour of St John the Baptist, this church was rebuilt by Ewan Christian in 1872.

The architect, who also restored Southwell Minster and Carlisle Cathedral, reused 12th-century fragments and Norman stone from the previous church erected in 1779.

High Toynton is known as a “doubly thankful” village – it is one of only 14 in the UK where all the men came back from both World Wars.

Included in the church is a bank of Living Memories, which includes a resident’s diary of 1939 to 1941.

The restored building will house an interactive ‘History Hub’ incorporating creative games and quizzes to really involve visitors with this heritage site.

Fundraising events
Parishioners are now confident the structural repairs will be finally completed by this summer, and plans for the interior – flooring, seating, lighting and toilets – are well under way, turning their dreams of creating a community space into reality.

Ever since the tower collapsed, residents have done their own fundraising through various events including ceilidhs, music festivals, and a CD about the history of the parish. As well as the National Lottery Heritage Foundation, they’ve been supported with grants from the Levelling Up Fund, attained by several different villagers, and various smaller foundations, such as the Kochan Trust, East Lindsey, and National Churches Trust.

They’ve also continued worship in the chancel, and outdoors in the churchyard.

So, five years on, is there any more clarity about what caused the tower to collapse?

Alison says: “When the tower collapsed and it was analysed, all the debris went to dust, which implies very poor materials were used by the Victorians who built it! Even in 1916 there’s mention in a book of High Toynton being a ‘poorly built church’ and that’s when it wasn’t even 50 years old!”

But one thing Alison is certain about is the importance of community spirit and a ‘Grand Inauguration’ is planned for the rebuilt church later this year.

She concludes: “You must get together as a community. It’s no good a couple of people working on their own. You must engage as many people as possible, and make it exciting.”

For more information visit www.hightoynton.co.uk

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