Aylesbury Vale village church reopens after £200k facelift

A rundown church building in a village near Buckingham and Bicester has reopened its doors with a completely refurbished interior, after a £200,000 facelift.

Twyford United Reformed Church has been closed since December 2021 for modernisation and repair.

To the delight of its congregation of around 15, the Victorian chapel on Bicester Road reopened on Sunday, boasting new kitchen and toilet facilities and two flexible spaces that can be used either together or separately for worship or community activities.

Acting church secretary Brenda North said: “I often wondered if this would ever happen. The building was approaching being unusable because of the poor facilities.

"We have been fundraising for more than 10 years. Thanks to the generosity of Twyford people and some major funders, we can once again proudly offer the building to our community.”

Major contributors to the £200,000 project included HS2, the FCC Communities Fund, Bucks Historic Churches, the Garfield Weston Foundation, the Congregational & General Charitable Trust and the Wessex Trust, a charity administered by the United Reformed Church.

URC development and support officer Ray Stanyon said: “It’s satisfying to see an old church building repurposed for church and community use in the modern day.

“The small congregation have been steadfast in their determination to raise the funds and to make the necessary changes to their cherished home.

"I hope this will encourage other church communities to see similar opportunities.”

As well as Sunday worship, the church hosts a mobile Post Office and has plans for more community activities.

Mrs North said: “We’re small, and the whole basis that we’ve got a lot of this money is because we’re going to serve the community. So we’re going to be looking at setting up various groups, whatever we feel would enhance the community.

"We certainly want to do things for people who are lonely. We already have an outreach Post Office in our church – Jigar Patel, who runs the Buckingham Post Office now, comes to Twyford every Thursday morning, and when we get going again he’s coming back on Monday morning.

"And when they’re there, we offer companionship and coffee and tea, and it’s lovely for people who are lonely to come and sit and chat.”