Building for the Future
We’re raising funds to transform our tired 1950s hall into community facilities fit for the twenty first century - a new kitchen and extension, new foyer, and a totally renovated main hall including a new roof and modern accessible toilets.
We want to serve our diverse and multi-generational community. Our project will provide a welcoming, warm, accessible and comfortable place for our growing activities.
What will we achieve?
New kitchen and extension
A new extension to the rear of the current main hall will contain:
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a well-equipped kitchen
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separate storage rooms for food, equipment and furniture
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a large additional community room, an adaptable space that can be used for a wide range of activities
People will connect with each other and form friendships over meals / refreshments. A well-equipped, modern kitchen will enable cooking for large numbers whether for Warm Welcome or for larger events. Modern equipment and sufficient space will make it much easier for volunteers to provide refreshments and meals.
New foyer
A new welcoming foyer will be accessible to all. We will remove the existing entrance steps to make access simple and keep the foyer warm with double doors. An octagonal rooflight will create a light-filled reception area. It will also add a focal point to the entrance, echoing the rooflight over the font and reflecting the shape of the church.
Renovation of the main hall and ancillary spaces
Renovating the main hall and adjacent spaces will provide attractive rooms for all ages to meet, connect with others, to help and be helped, and to serve the local community. The buildings will come as near as possible to being carbon net zero and easy and cheap to maintain in decades to come.
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New roof.
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Modern accessible toilets.
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New insulation, electrics and heating to make the building comfortable in an energy efficient and sustainable way.
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Increased number of adaptable spaces for community and church activities throughout the week.
What next?
Essentially, we need to go through a process to try and bring together planning, permissions, contracts and funding so that the project can happen.
Step 1: Preparing the brief/Consultation/Feasibility Study
COMPLETE
Step 2: Detailed proposals/Planning/Fundraising
PLANNING PERMISSION GIVEN. FUNDRAISING IN PROGRESS
Step 3: Final Plans/Permissions/Tender
IN PROGRESS
Step 4: Contracts/Construction
Step 5: Completion/Move in
Fundraising
Our ambitious building project is being funded through the generous commitment of our St Paul's community and beyond. The congregation has already pledged a substantial amount toward our goal, demonstrating their faith in this vision for our church's future. We're actively pursuing grants from charitable foundations and funding bodies who support community projects like ours, and we're confident these will contribute significantly to our total. Alongside this, the congregation is organizing a variety of community fundraising activities and events that not only help raise vital funds but also bring our local community together around this shared project. Every contribution, whether large or small, brings us closer to making our new building a reality.
To be inspired by stories of the community at St Paul's working hard and using their unique gifts and skills to fundraise, click below!
For more information about the ways you can give (including one-off, regularly or as a loan) or to pledge towards the project, download the form below.
Looking Back: Building in the Past
The First Building Project:
The Parish of Ireland Wood emerged as areas of Woodland and Farmland were developed in the post-war period. The parish itself was not formally established until 1976, some years after the church of St Paul's Ireland Wood had been planted by the Rector of Adel and responsibility given for the development of the church to the Assistant Curate, Rev'd Harry Elliot. Initially meeting in the room of a farmhouse, local residents gathered for worship until land was purchased by the Leeds Church Extension Society and plans were put together to build a church. It was opened and dedicated on Saturday 10th February, 1951 - with the church being the present church hall and adjoining cottage accommodated the Priest.
Expansion:
With a purpose built building, the congregation continued to grow adding activities for children and young people including Guides and Cubs. Another congregation started in the curate's home in Tinshill with a Sunday school of 80-100 children meeting in the Welcome Inn. In 1959, they opened a meeting room in Bedford View. With this growth Christians in Adel and Ireland Wood began to raise money for the more expensive undertaking of a new church. As plans developed there was much interest with some 450 people taking a bus trip to see the plans in the University of Leeds Refectory.
In June 1964 building began. The architect, Geoffrey Davy, created an octagonal design inspired by le Corbusier. Davy consulted the clergy and church building committee extensively and gave careful thought to how the building would draw people into God’s presence. The finished building featured beautiful Flemish glass in arrow slit windows and brutalist chandeliers and cross above the altar. On Saturday 4 September 1965, St Paul’s Church was consecrated.
More Details
In 2020, just before lockdown, we completed phase 1 of a building project, transforming the church building into a warm, welcoming and adaptable space for now and into the future. We are grateful to God for enabling us to do so much in such a short time and the impact this has had on our use of the space through the week and for special events.
Now we want to continue with the next phase of this project, to re-order and renovate our church halls and cottage which are in need of significant work. We want to do this to serve the needs of our church and our community into the future. It is a space which does this already in so many ways, Foodbank, Baby Basics, Warm Welcome, Youth Drop In, Games Community to name a few, alongside a number of local hall users who hire the space. But many of these are limited by problems of layout and inadequate facilities as well as ongoing maintenance issues including leaks, damp, and deterioration of the fabric of the building. The facilities are in desperate need of updating and the building needs repairs just to ensure these activities and the many more opportunities that exist can be secure into the future.
First, we carried out a feasibility study to get people’s views on what we need. From those ideas our architects, Caroline Brayson and Alexa Stephens from Pearce Bottomley LLP, have developed the wonderful plans that you can see (below). We are excited that the new plans will give us more room with an extension at the back of the church hall as well as totally modern facilities.
We are very grateful to the many members of the church who have given donations and pledges since our Giving To Build campaign in September 2024. We have also had generous grants from the Benefact Trust, The Beatrice Laing Trust and the Community Infrastructure Levy. So far we have raised just over half the money we need. Please contact us or view our giving page to see how you can give. Meanwhile we continue to apply for grants and individuals are undertaking fundraising initiatives.
We have also tried to tell some of the story of St Paul's Church so far, so you can see that this is a part of the history of the church. We are another generation investing in this community, God has provided before and will provide again.
