Viridor Credits for St Lawrence Church

A grant of just over £65,000 from Viridor Credits, under the Community Landfill Funding scheme, has been granted to the Ipswich Historic Churches Trust towards a total estimated cost of £100,300. Works receiving support under this scheme must be within 10 miles of a landfill site - Masons, Great Blakenham near Ipswich. The Trust is very grateful to Viridor Credits for this major grant towards essential repair works on the external south wall of this important Ipswich historic building.

Ipswich is fortunate in having twelve medieval churches - one of the largest collections of such buildings in one town in the country. St Lawrence makes a significant contribution to the historic townscape of Ipswich; it dates from the 15th century and its tall, highly-decorative west tower is a well-loved and important feature in our town centre.

All of these buildings have a long history and contain important features. St Lawrence is a Grade 2 star Listed Building and, being declared redundant in the 1970s, was acquired by the Borough Council and put under the care of the Ipswich Historic Churches Trust, established to look after them.

The church has strong connections with Cardinal Thomas Wolsey - his uncle, Edmund Daundy, undertook a number of significant works on the church and its tower houses the oldest ring of five bells in the Christian world. Their sound would have been familiar to Wolsey when he was a boy.

In addition to ensuring their upkeep the Trust is also charged, under its chairman, Dr John Blatchly, with finding appropriate new uses for these wonderful historic buildings. The use of St Lawrence by the company Realise Futures as a community restaurant was welcomed by the Trust as this ensures that a large number of people, both visitors and locals, visit and use the building on a regular basis. This grant from Viridor Credits will allow the Trust to undertake essential repair works on this important Ipswich building.

John Field, Board Member, Ipswich Historic

Churches Trust and Project Co-ordinator