ABOUT US
The centre as it is seen today is largely the result of three years hard work by a group of local residents. St Peter Hungate Church is owned by Norwich Historic Churches Trust. The Norwich Historic Churches Trust was established by the City Council in 1973 to repair and maintain redundant churches and chapels within the city walls. It now has eighteen buildings in its care. Repairs were to be financed by letting the churches to suitable tenants, the ever increasing deficit being met by the proceeds of a public appeal, English Heritage grants and, more recently, targeted applications to the Heritage Lottery Fund, the Prince’s Trust, the Pilgrim Trust and others.
The church had most recently been rented to a private individual. This lease having come to an end, however, there was pressure to find a new use for the church.
The original impetus for the project as a centre for celebrating the remarkable medieval artefacts to be found in Norfolk’s churches came from Anthony Barnes and Kate Weaver who conceived the project amid fears that the church would be turned into a wine bar. Great affection for the building demonstrated by the scores of visitors who visited when it was opened for one weekend a week and on heritage open days, Visitor numbers at normally open churches in Norfolk in the care of the Churches Conservation Trust indicate a widespread interest in visiting churches. The unexpectedly big success of last year’s textile trail in Norwich confirmed the enthusiasm of the public for following informed trails to a number of sites. The church is situated between the Cathedral and Norwich’s cultural and commercial centre and is very close to all three. Elm Hill itself is widely illustrated in books and on calendars and has been used as a film set.
Others involved:
Claire Daunton,
Its initial Trustees are a local resident, a Professor of History from the University of East Anglia, a Residentiary Canon of the Cathedral with expertise in stained glass and representatives of the Norfolk Churches Trust and of Norwich HEART. The Chairman is to be Paul Binski, Professor of the History of Medieval Art at Cambridge, who has a house in the same street as the church.
The aims of the project:
To publicise the work of the stained glass artists of medieval Norwich. In this the project wanted to make known to the public the work of local academic David King who is researching stained glass on behalf of the CVMA. Distinctive school of glass.
To tell people where to find medieval stained glass all over Norwich and provide some interpretation of it.
Thirdly, it will establish links with schools and all levels of education on behalf of all the churches in the care of the Norwich Historic Churches Trust, most of which contain monuments and other artefacts of historical and aesthetic importance.
To re-open St Peter Hungate church to the public.
The aims of the project:
EEDA grant has made it possible to promote the Elm Hill area as a tourist and commercial attraction.