Holy Trinity Church has £2.65m from the National Lottery Heritage Fund towards a £3.4m restoration, with reopening aimed at the second half of 2028.
Holy Trinity Church has been awarded £2.65m by The National Lottery Heritage Fund, the largest single piece of funding yet for a building that has stood mostly shut for decades. The council announced the award on 1 September and put the full cost of the restoration programme at £3.4m. (Colchester City Council, 1 September 2026)
The council’s deputy leader gave a date for the first time. Cllr David King said the authority is “working towards renewal and re-opening in the second half of 2028”. The next steps are detailed design work and the appointment of a contractor, and the council says construction and opening dates will follow.
What the record says about the building
The church is listed at Grade I, the top of the three grades, and has been since 24 February 1950. Historic England’s list entry, number 1169575, describes it in detail. (Historic England, list entry 1169575)
- the west tower is pre-Conquest, probably built mid 11th century, and is “largely in Roman brick”, three stages, with a pyramidal tiled roof
- the west doorway has a triangular head and the windows are round-headed
- the tower was added to an earlier church of circa 1000, of which only the west wall survives
- the rest of the building is largely 14th and 15th century, much restored in 1886
- inside is a mural alabaster monument to William Gilberd, 1544 to 1603, described in the listing as “famous for his researches into electricity”
The council describes the Saxon tower as Colchester’s oldest standing building.
The part the announcement leaves out
Holy Trinity is on Historic England’s Heritage at Risk Register, and the entry has not been softened by the news of the grant. It records the building’s condition as Poor, its vulnerability as High and its trend as Declining. Its priority category is C, “slow decay; no solution agreed”. The register lists the owner as the local authority. (Historic England Heritage at Risk register, entry 159137)
That is the measure of what the £3.4m has to undo, and it is why the council’s own release says the church “has been largely closed and underused for decades”.
Who pays, and who will run it
The £2.65m is the largest slice of the £3.4m. The council names the other contributors as Historic England, The Pilgrim Trust, Essex Heritage Trust, the Community Assets Fund and Section 106 contributions, and says further contributions are still being sought, so the package is not yet closed.
The building will be operated by Amphora. Amphora Commercial Holdings Ltd is company number 10798878, incorporated on 1 June 2017 under its former name Colchester Commercial (Holdings) Limited, and registered at Rowan House, 33 Sheepen Road. Companies House records a single person with significant control: Colchester Borough Council, holding 75% or more of the shares and voting rights and the right to appoint or remove directors. (Companies House, 10798878)
In other words, the council is funding the restoration of a building it owns and handing it to a company it owns.
Cllr Venessa Moffat, chair of Amphora Commercial Holdings Ltd, said the company sees the church as “an important part of Colchester’s story” and that the money “allows us to preserve that history while creating a vibrant and flexible space for the community”.
Cllr Paul Dundas linked it to the work already done outside, saying the improvements at Trinity Square “are already helping to transform this part of the city centre” and that local businesses have described the square as “an oasis of greenery in the heart of Colchester”.
What it means for you
Nothing changes on the ground yet. The church stays closed while the design work is done and a contractor is appointed, and the council has committed only to the second half of 2028 for reopening, not to a month. There is no consultation attached to this announcement and nothing for residents to respond to.
What is worth watching is the funding gap. The council says contributions are still being sought against the £3.4m total, so the shape of the finished project is not yet fixed. Any listed building consent for the works will appear on the council’s planning register, which we track on our Colchester planning news page.
If you want to see the tower before the scaffolding goes up, it stands on Trinity Street, off the High Street and a short walk from the Priory Street car park on our parking in Colchester page. What else is open in the city centre is on our things to do in Colchester page.
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