History of SWIFT

In St Mary the Virgin, Weston Turville, we have a beautiful and well-preserved Grade I Listed building. As those before us built and maintained this church for the benefit of future generations, so we must do the same for those who follow us, as well as for the present day.

SWIFT was formed in 2011 to look into ways of improving accessibility to and within the Church for those with any sort of disability. We plan a room available for use by any groups within the Weston Turville community. It will be fully accessible for wheelchair users and other less able persons and will have baby-changing facilities. The church will thus be better able to cater for children, the elderly and less able members of the community who have nowhere else to meet. This cannot be accommodated within the existing building.

Our own church meetings, eg PCC, committees etc will be more comfortable, whilst saving money by not having to heat and light the whole church. The meeting room will accommodate up to about 30 people seated.

We have our planning permission from the council and a faculty from the Diocese of Oxford.

SWIFT has currently raised over £100,000!  We need £300k to build the extension and are about to apply for a grant which, if we are successful, will enable us to start building in early 2019. Before applying for the grant we must raise a further £50k in grants, loans and donations by the end of June 2018.