Ashbourne Methodist Church is embarking on an ambitious scheme to renew its premises, upgrading them and joining them together. This project is known as ‘The Link’.
The scheme overall will enable the church to strengthen its role in the community over the coming decades. It will do so by providing better venues for community use, better facilities for accommodating different forms of worship, improving access and safeguarding, and enabling easier maintenance of the facilities.
The Link Project is part of Ashbourne Reborn, a programme designed to bring back vibrancy, vitality and economic prosperity to Ashbourne town centre. The total programme will cost £15.2m of which the UK Government is contributing £13.4m. The difference of £1.8m is made up of match funding raised locally, including significant funds raised from Ashbourne Methodist Church members, friends and grants, as well as grant giving organisations and local businesses.
Ashbourne Methodist Church will become a community hub, offering a fresh, modern range of accommodation options for groups and families and an outdoor riverside garden event space, will also link to a range of sustainable transport options to improve connectivity, including charging for e-bikes and scooters and connections to the Tissington Trail.
The plan is to create a new glass-sided link building and reception area which will act as the new main entrance from Station Road to the church. This building will then connect directly to:
- The main worship area
- Century Hall
- Cornerstone café
- Gateway, beneath the worship area
- Waterside, beneath the Century Hall
The new facilities will provide easy access to each area of the church complex. All parts of the buildings will also be refurbished and will be provided with new kitchens and accessible toilets.
Rev’d Nicola Briggs, Superintendent Minister Ashbourne Methodist Circuit, said:
“We are delighted that the Ashbourne Reborn bid has been successful. The funding will enable us to do so much to develop our buildings for use by the community and as a performing arts and events space. It will make a significant contribution to the revitalisation of the town centre.
“We are so pleased to continue serving our community as we have been doing for over 200 years. Our Link project is about Linking Buildings, Linking People, Building Community.”
You can read more about Ashbourne Reborn on the Derbyshire Dales District Council website
The redevelopment of Ashbourne Methodist Church is budgeted to cost £6.418m, with £4.972m funded by UK Government and £1.446 in match funding raised by the church. We have already raised significant funds from church members as well as grants from the Methodist Church and charitable organisations.
You may be interested in reading a little more of the history of Methodism in Ashbourne. Or try the historic Ashbourne website, Our Ashbourne.