Kingsley Holt Methodist Chapel has been a focus for village events and community groups for over 80 years.

The Kingsley Holt Chapel was closed for regular worship in June 2019 and our group were approached by the Methodist Church trustees to help find alternative uses for the Chapel in order to retain its use for the community. We worked alongside the Church to run community events and increase hires, however lockdown brought this to a halt, and we were advised in May 2021 that the Chapel was to be sold.

We registered the building as an Asset of Community Value with Staffordshire Moorlands District Council in August 2021 to give it some protection and buy us time and the Methodist Church notified them of their intention to sell in September 2021, which gave us a short period of time to try to negotiate with the Methodist Church before the Chapel can be sold on the open market without restriction.

The potential loss of this building for our community use and to our village heritage inspired our community to come together to create a campaign to purchase, renovate and revitalise the former Chapel.

The Kingsley Holt Centre Project aimed to raise around £250,000 to purchase and refurbish the former Kingsley Holt Methodist Chapel, to introduce a welcome amenity to our village. Which will provide a welcoming space for groups, clubs, activities, events and a community shop & café.

We set up a Community Benefit Society which will run The Kingsley Holt Centre for the benefit of the residents of Kingsley Holt and the surrounding area. Any profits that the Centre makes will only used to benefit the community that it serves.

We raised £140,000 from our Community Share Issue, and a further £20,000 in donations from the community. With this along with loans from Co-operative & Community Finance and Co-op Loan Fund we were able to purchase the building, and took possession on 5th September 2022.

We are now looking into renovating and modernising the building to make it accessible to all, and are currently working on applying for grant funding towards this work. We hope to be able to open the Kingsley Holt Centre in Spring 2023.