Fundraising Appeal
2026 is our 200th birthday!
Please help us create Thornbury URC’s future – and be part of Thornbury’s tomorrow.
This year marks 200 years since we opened our beautiful church in the heart of our community. We have welcomed worshippers and a wide range of local community groups for two centuries! Thornbury URC is a well-known and well-loved venue with a marvellous acoustic and excellent access. But there are parts of our building that are tired and unsuitable for the needs of our community groups and our congregation. That's why, with the full support of our Church Members and the South Western Synod of the United Reformed Church, we are stepping out in faith and have embarked upon a bold and creative development project.
We will reconfigure the ground floor layout to have a larger and modern kitchen, meeting rooms, office space and storage, and install a fit-for-purpose accessible toilet. We will improve the entrance to make our church even more welcoming, whilst ensuring the main worship and performance space remains flexible and user-friendly; we’ll also upgrade the audio and visual equipment. For the first time, our church will be fully fire-compliant! We're going to ensure our church building can serve for worship and community long into the future. Follow this link to see our exciting plans: (insert link)
To realise our plans will cost just over £600,000. We have already raised over £355,000, Praise God! We’d like to complete this work to realise our plans for the future of Thornbury URC for the next 200 years! Can you contribute to help us raise the remaining money? Just follow this link (insert link) to give what you can to ensure that Thornbury URC is part of Thornbury’s Tomorrow.
Here's a snapshot of the work we want to complete:
- Add an internal porch glazed panels that project into the open space to make an open and brighter entrance
- Create new and larger kitchen fully equipped for a wider range of hospitality
- Remove internal walls to create more flexible downstairs hall in the current extension
- Improve toilet provision and disabled access
- Improve heating, lighting and insulation to cut our carbon footprint and reduce bills
- Build a level entrance between the church and the church rooms, and increase open space throughout
- Redesign redundant space under the balcony as a vestry and office on one side and storage on the other
- Increase storage with new walk-in cupboards