The Revd Craig Holmes, Vicar of St Richard’s Church Hanworth, recently completed the Centurion Autumn 100, a 100 mile run, raising over £2,000 to help renovate St Richard’s Church and transform it into a modern hub for the community.
Craig started the run in the village of Goring on the River Thames and completed it in 22 hours, 12 minutes, and while all the donations have yet to be counted he hopes to have raised over £2,500 through sponsorship.
This funding will be put towards Project Grow, an ambitious scheme to transform the much-loved, but now aging, church into a modern community hub that can serve as a symbol of regeneration and hope for the whole community, which resides in one of the most deprived areas of London.
The church currently serves not only as a worshipping community, but also as a venue for, among other activities, a day-care and after school club. Under Project Grow Craig hopes to see modern new facilities and meeting spaces installed that will allow St Richard’s to expand its provision in every area of its current use.
The estimated cost of the proposed building work is £1.4 million, with £380,000 being raised so far. The project has received the support of the wider community, including neighbouring churches, the Hampton Fuel Allotment Charity and the Borough Council who have granted the scheme planning permission. St Richard’s now hope to see work on the first phase of the project – refurbishing the roof, which has suffered due to the repeated theft of copper – start in 2017.
While recovering from his 100 mile run, Craig said:
“The money raised through running the Autumn 100 is an important step in the right direction but we still have a huge mountain to climb to meet the costs of refurbishing the church and seeing Project Grow through to the end. We have received so much support from the local community who have rallied around St Richard’s and the focus now is on moving forward and building momentum for the Project.”
Craig is keen to enlist as much support as possible to help with the project. If you would like to get in touch to help with fundraising then you can email him. Or find out more at project-grow.org.uk.