Progress made to bring disused Wilton church back into use

The Wilton Sunrise Project - a community-inspired and community-led regeneration initiative aiming to transform the historic but currently disused Church of St Peter’s Fugglestone in Wilton – has reached its first major milestone.

After months of discussions, meetings, and planning sessions, the main project partners – Wilton Parish Church Council and Wilton Community Land Trust – have now agreed on the parameters for a 6-figure funding bid to a major National Lottery-backed funding agency. 

The outline funding package for the project will also require a 5-figure sum to be raised within the local community due to ‘match-funding’ requirements.

The funding bid has been developed based on extensive research about planning requirements within relevant Church of England bodies, the needs and wishes of people living near St Peter’s, and ‘lessons learned’ that have been generously provided by the Trustees of St John’s Place in Lower Bemerton.

The project is indebted to the 135 locals who responded to a survey conducted by Wilton Community Land Trust earlier in the year. Over 84% of survey respondents favour the project’s goal to bring St Peter’s back into everyday life by making it available for a broad range of community uses.

Discussions with the Trustees of St John’s Place have also proved invaluable, as they generously shared their knowledge about their own community-led effort to revitalise St John’s church, in Lower Bemerton, into a nationally renowned vibrant community hub.

At the heart of the Wilton Sunrise Project’s funding bid is an unusual and ambitious plan to directly involve local community members in ‘hands-on’ practical projects involved with regenerating St Peter’s. 

The project partners plan to work with local charities, social enterprises, and educational institutions to bring this aspect of the project to life.

Chair of Wilton Community Land Trust Neil Prigent said: “Wilton Sunrise Project recognises that St Peter’s Fugglestone is vitally important to two main constituencies: (1) local people who worshipped there and/or were christened, married, or buried family members at the church; and (2) aficionados of the celebrated English devotional poet George Herbert, rector of the church in the early 1630s. 

"The fabric of the church building is in serious decline, putting the site at risk. We hope to arrest that decline by providing a purposeful and sustainable future for the site that preserves its connection to the lives of local people in Wilton, and remains a physical tribute to the life and works of George Herbert.”