St Richards Church, Ham
Project news: January 2026
We are thrilled to announce that The National Lottery Heritage Fund have awarded us a grant of £248,000 to develop our heritage project, and invited us to apply for a further grant of £2,828,000 to deliver the project.
This is extremely encouraging and a vote of confidence that we have a building worth saving, a story to celebrate and a future to anticipate.
We are very grateful to National Lottery players and to everyone who has contributed to the Restoration Fund in any way. It is their generosity that has enabled us to partner with the Heritage Fund in this exciting venture.
This grant, matched by £59,000 from St Richard’s, means that we have already appointed:
· a Project Manager to oversee the development of our project;
· a Heritage Consultant to prepare a programme of events and activities;
· a Fundraising Manager to help raise the additional funds needed.
It will also enable us to:
· Prepare a comprehensive plan to bring the building up to today’s standards of welcome and comfort;
· Carry out further surveys of the roof and complete the plans for the restored building.
St Richard's has been the parish church at the heart of Ham Riverside since the 1960s. Our vision is to worship God, welcome everyone and build community. On other pages you can read about our leadership team, our mission, our iconic building and how to support our restoration appeal, as well about the different groups that meet and the various events that take place here.
CHURCH TEMPORARILY CLOSED
We regret that due to safety concerns St Richard's Church is CLOSED to all public access for the time being. Urgent work is currently underway to remedy the situation and we will keep you posted here and on our Facebook page.
Sunday services will resume from 1st March, in St Richard's School hall, at 5pm. The first one will be our monthly informal service, led by Luke Hamlyn, with holy communion. Following Sundays in the school at 5pm will be a more traditional holy communion service. There are no activities in February.
Vicar Simon Coupland has recorded a Sunday sermon for 22nd February when the church can't meet, reflecting on the day's gospel reading for the start of Lent.
SEEDLINGS
We are delighted to say that thanks to the generosity and flexibility of St Richard's School, SEEDLINGS toddler group can meet in the school hall on Wednesday mornings. The timing is 9:15 to 10:45am - please bring your own coffee cups for yourself and water bottles for your children.
What is happening?
In January 2026 a timber survey examined the state of the main roof beams, drilling into where they cannot be seen. That showed that several of the beams are rotten at the base, and while that doesn’t mean that they are about to collapse, our structural engineers said that because the building is open to the public, the church should be closed until internal props are put in place to shore up the roof. These will stay in place until the repair works due in 2027-28, when the rotten beams will be replaced. The consultants suggest that this process might only take until Easter, so while we hope that is true, being realistic we recognise it might take until the end of April. Then we can reopen as normal.
In the meantime, thanks to St Richard's School, our Sunday services will take place in the school hall, at 5pm each week. Unfortunately all other activities have had to be suspended until the building reopens. We are still expecting a scaffolding canopy to go up over the whole building at the end of March/ beginning of April.
Our services are on Sunday and Tuesday mornings at 10am, alternating between holy communion and morning worship. Once a month, usually on the first Sunday, there's a contemporary service at 4pm. We'd love you to join us!
We also value our strong relationship with St Richard's CofE Primary School next door.
Find us:
Ashburnham Rd, Richmond, TW10 7NL
Contact us:
By phone:
02085461438