The Yorkshire Dalesman Magazine (January Issue) - Rural Churches

Photography by George Hutton

Words by Cameron Hill

Church Conservation

Churches punctuate rural life, spires standing over soft green, but church attendances have more than halvedsince the 80’s, over 600 churches closing since 2000. Who’s praying anymore? Who’s even pretending to pray anymore? 

Pews empty, bells silent and collecting dust, graveyard growing unkempt.

These closures are not just an issue for people of faith, they mean rural communities are at risk of losing access to some of their last open public spaces, places that have been the focal points of their communities for centuries. 

Their silence echoes the quiet of closing post offices, boarded-up pubs, shops and village halls run by volunteers. Institutions thinning out. Some groups are trying to reverse the trend.  

Nationally, the Church Conservation Trust steps in when a church has been classified as ‘redundant’, trying to re-grow the lost community around the church, to give the building back to the people and teach them the skills to maintain it. Here, the Middle Esk Moor benefice are trying to see how these rural churches can best serve the communities around them, trying ideas like the weekly community cafe in Grosmont. Instead of pews there are long, communal tables decked with flowers and candles. Volunteers prepare homemade cakes, cook up soups, bring teas to your table. The church once again a meeting place, a community space. 

It takes years to nurture organic community engagement. But these spaces are slow-moving, long-lasting things worth preserving, and there are people giving their time to rejuvenate them. Green shoots of hope for rural churches, delicately growing in spite of it all.