- Seventeenth-century communion rails at Great Gidding, Huntingdonshire
Talks (including Big Update)
These are public talks.
Other talks, including the regular Members Briefings, are on the Members’ area of this website.
Zoom talk by Diana Evans, Head of Places of Worship, Historic England, 30 April 2025
What does Historic England do for places of worship? with clickable links to the individual topics.
Zoom talk by Bob Jaeger, President of Partners for Sacred Places, 4 December 2024
The work of Partners for Sacred Places (working with American churches)
Zoom talk by Anne Jenkins of National Lottery Heritage Fund, 24 September 2024
Presentation by Anne Jenkins of NLHF for HRBA Sep 2024
Q&A following Anne Jenkins NLHF presentation
The Big Update 2024
The 2024 Big Update was held as in-person event at St James the Less, Pimlico.
afternoon session part 1 afternoon session part 2 Luke Hughes Meaning and Metaphor – altars
Short videos:
What do you enjoy about ringing? (link to Youtube)
Jenny Freeman: St Mary the Less, Thetford, Norfolk
Adam Klups: shop in Amberley church, Gloucestershire
Sarah Crossland: Church Trails final slide
The Big Update 2023
The 2023 Big Update was held as in-person event at St John’s, Waterloo.
Programme (on the day, the two final speakers were reversed, so that the final speaker was Dr Louise Hampson). During the day, Lizzie Glithero-West, CEO of our parent organisation The Heritage Alliance, tweeted her thoughts, and these are rolled up at https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1668913010906222593.html
Presentations: morning presentations afternoon presentations Handout: Corporate venue checklist
The Big Update 2022
The 2022 Big Update was held as in-person event at St Peter’s church, Vauxhall, London.
Programme and Biographies at 25 April 2022 Attendees at 22 April 2022 password protected
Presentations: 1 A political context setting Lizzie Glithero-West 2 ‘Gettin digi with it': our social media story FOFC 3 Future for the UK’s church buildings: Findings so far NCT 4 Challenges and opportunities faced by Baptist Churches 5 Pilot exploring sustainability 6 National ecumenical resource 7 Your Big Update 8 CCT digital 9 Building volunteers
Videos: 1 St Mary’s Catholic Church Great Yarmouth 2 Bradford Cathedral English Tourism Week 2021 3 Derby Cathedral Volunteers 4 Cemetery Road Baptist Church, Sheffield 5 Tirley, Gloucestershire: living with flooding
The Big Update 2021 by Zoom
The 2020 Big Update was moved from October 2020 to March 2021, so became the 2021 Big Update. It was held by Zoom.
Programme and accompanying Organisational Updates
Welcome from Carol Dinenage, Minister of State at DCMS (given by pre-recorded video; transcript)
A Strategy for Church Heritage (Norway) (pdf of powerpoint presentation) part 1 part 2
Restoring the future – Donhead St Andrews (pdf of powerpoint presentation) part 1 part 2 architect’s video (silent)
Government thinking – opportunities (powerpoint presentation)
Synagogue of the Valleys (pdf of powerpoint presentation) part 1 part 2
Videos etc
Cumbria Churches Trust training videos (the trailer for traditional building construction was shown)
Holy Trinity, Boar Lane, Leeds video
Stoke Orchard, Gloucestershire, Wall Paintings video
Winston, Co. Durham, removal of organ video clip Winston talk
Interactive three-dimensional model of Mundon church, Essex on website of Friends of Friendless churches
BBC report on impact of pandemic (link to BBC website; 4 minutes)
How to move a 100-year old church (link to Youtube; 4 minutes)
The Zoom chat room is available on request to those who participated in the day
The Big Update 2019
BIG UPDATE 2019 Programme and biographies
Lucy More The Taylor Review Pilot
Trevor Cooper Problems and Possibilities for the rural isolated church
Harriet Carty Beautiful Burial Ground Big Update 2019
Jon Lane Installing a toilet in a grade I listed church HRBA Big Update December 2019
Diana Evans Rural Places of Worship and Public Value Big Update
Wendy Coombey Virtuous Circles and Mission and Mortar BIG Update 2019
The Big Update 2018
The keynote address by Matthew Saunders will be published separately. We hope that the talk on Methodist buildings strategy will be posted here in future.
BIG UPDATE 2018 Programme and biographies
Andrew More Heating old churches
Ian Bapty and Peter Biggers Inspired futures
Christopher O’Mahony Ring out the old (bell-ringing)
James Halsall Taylor pilot in suffolk
Dee Dyas and Louise Hampson Pilgrimage and cathedrals
Ruth Knight Making churches more environmentally friendly
The Big Update 2017
BIG UPDATE 2017 FINAL Programme and biographies
Heritage_Statement_2017 (referred to by John Glen, MP in his talk)
1 Crossing the Threshold Becky Payne
2 Austerity Atheists and Angst Becky Clark PRESENTATION * 2 Austerity Atheists and Angst Becky Clark TALK
3 Interpreting your Church for Visitors Anne Fletcher and Spencer Clark
4 ‘Moving mountains’ (Graham Fender-Allison) to follow. Graham’s talk included a demonstration of the 360-degree online images of churches which have been sponsored by the Church of Scotland, available here.
5 Unlocking the Next Economy Stir to Action Jonathan Gordon-Farleigh PRESENTATION * 5 Unlocking the Next Economy Stir to Action Jonathan Gordon-Farleigh TALK
6 Tales from the Inner City Ian Simpson
7 A postcard to the future Susan Rowe PRESENTATION * 7 A postcard to the future Susan Rowe TALK
8 Strategic Action Plan Wales Christopher Catling
The Big Update 30 November 2016
EDP Community Lead Design – edp-approaches-to-supporting-community-led-design-in-historic-places-of-worship
Mobile generation – give-and-receive-with-the-mobile-generation-neil-Rathbone
Community Energy – powerup-north-london-churches-and-community-energy-nikkie-brain-and-st-annes-highgate
CCT Automatic Doors – rachel-morley-cct-automatic-door-locks-unlocking-potential-or-a-can-of-worms-notes rachel-morley-cct-automatic-door-locks-unlocking-potential-or-a-can-of-worms
The Big Update 3 December 2014
Sherry Bates: UK’s Best modern churches Video of winning church
Nigel Lacey: Church tourism study
Andrew Mottram: I wouldn’t start from here and underlying document Church Buildings Blessing Burden and an Asset for Mission FINAL
Cameron Newham: Digital Atlas of England ppt Video of progress Cameron Newham digital atlas talk Word
Stuart Beattie Scotland: Churches Trust
Emma Tomalin & Caroline Starkey: Building Buddhism in England
Cambridge UAV survey presentation
Trevor Cooper: Trusts looking after churches
The Big Update 11 Sep 2013
rosie sherrington disabled access
chris jones Google inside-view (photos compressed)
rosie lister visitor experience
The Big Update 12 Sep 2012
Finding uses for Cornwall’s historic chapels
and a guidance note from English Heritage on chapels in Cornwall – much of which is applicable more widely
Gutterclear: a new approach to church maintenance
Heritage Lottery Fund – strategy and grants
Church seating the next hundred years: In three parts: part 1a part 2 part 3
Factoring in Heritage – Roman Catholic Heritage
Is there an app for that? – new technology in church interpretation and mission This talk included interactive visuals presented by the Centre for the Study of Christianity and Culture, Univerity of York. For more information, visit their website, especially under ‘Partnerships’
Rediscovering histories: Muslim Heritage in Britain. This talk was by Mobeen Butt of Islam in British Stone.