Hastings church awarded grant towards major repair project

His Place Community Church, in Robertson Street, will get almost £20,000 from Historic England.

The funding is a key part of the Trinity Triangle High Street Heritage Action Zone (HSHAZ) led by Heart of Hastings Community Land Trust and will enable His Place to detail a first phase of repairs and plan heritage activities ahead of submitting a major funding bid to the National Lottery Heritage Fund.

The Trinity Triangle HSHAZ is one of seven such schemes in the South East supported by Historic England via the £95 million government-funded High Streets Heritage Action Zone programme, designed to breathe new life into high streets across England.

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His Place was selected for support by Heart of Hastings’ grants panel, which is made up of local community organisations and businesses from the Trinity Triangle area.

The church, which is a Grade II listed building, was built as the Robertson Street Congregational Church in 1885.

It is on the Heritage at Risk Register and urgently needs repairs to its crumbling masonry and fragile windows, which have suffered badly over the years from wind and salt erosion.

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Along with saving the building, the project seeks to preserve and celebrate the music heritage of the church.

From the 1880s to the early 1970s, the Robertson Street Congregational Church was at the forefront of community efforts to provide free and affordable music in Hastings.

It ran choirs for all age groups, nurtured many vocal and instrumental soloists, and hosted festivals, competitions and concerts.

In the 1950s, its Young People’s Society put on hugely popular variety shows, which were the training ground for many performers in the Hastleons, the Philharmonia Choir and the Hastings Musical Festival.

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His Place will be holding a heritage open day on Saturday, March 12, at which international pianist and composer Polo Piatto, the founder of Opus Theatre, will be giving a free concert with support from a lot of musicians.

Everyone who would like to explore the building and learn more about the project is warmly invited to attend. Polo’s concert will be at 4pm.

Nicola Roper, administrator and trustee at His Place, said: “We’re thrilled to receive this grant from Heart of Hastings and Historic England.

“It means we can commission a proper investigation of our most urgent repairs and also begin to research our music heritage. We’re confident now of submitting a really strong bid to the Heritage Fund.

“We are so grateful to Polo and Opus for supporting this project and we ask anyone who is interested in the history of the church or the wider music heritage of Hastings to please come along to our open day on March 12 or else get in touch by email. Our address is: [email protected].

“We have to prove to the Heritage Fund that people want to see this beautiful building saved for future generations. So we really need people to back our bid.

“We’d especially love to meet people who remember singing or performing with a church group or have old programmes, flyers, photographs or any other stuff from its history. Please tell us your stories about this special place.”

Alma Howell, inspector of Historic Buildings and Areas at Historic England, said: “This funding will help deliver much-needed repairs to a really important and characterful building within the High Street Heritage Action Zone.

“It is also a strong first step towards developing plans for more comprehensive restoration later down the line. We look forward to seeing the building brought back into full use for the benefit of the community.”