Since Autumn 2022, Holy Trinity Westbury has run a weekly ‘Café in the Church’. Launched as a Warm Welcome Space following the rise in the cost of living, their work has since been recognised nationally, becoming a case study in a Historic England report on the role of heritage buildings in community wellbeing. To celebrate the launch of the report, representatives from the church attended an event at the House of Lords in February to share about the café.
Café in the Church was initially supported by local businesses, however when this funding finished in February 2023, they decided to continue. The gathering was renamed “Café in the Church” due to the high costs of heating the large building and offers hot drinks, cake and a warm welcome to the local community. The café has continued to flourish, thanks to a dedicated team of volunteers.
A few years into the running of the café, another local warm space provider introduced Holy Trinity to Esther Platt from the Good Faith Partnership who, with her colleague Alisha Palmer, was preparing a report funded by Historic England and the UK Government, investigating the role of heritage buildings on community wellbeing.
The Church expressed interest in participating and asked five people who represented the typical profile of visitors to the café to complete an anonymous online survey. In March 2025, Dianne Yeandel, an LLM at Holy Trinity, took part in a zoom session with warm space providers in heritage spaces from around the country, sharing their experiences of running a warm space café. The café was also visited by Esther Platt, who spoke with visitors and volunteers.
Earlier this year, Diane, and Gina Eastman, a key volunteer, were invited to represent Café in the Church at the parliamentary launch of the report in the House of Lords. The launch was attended by around 60 people, made up of a combination of Warm Welcome Space providers and representatives of grant-making bodies. They were the guests of Lord Alderdice, who, in his opening words, stressed the importance of heritage churches to their communities and why they should be “recognised and celebrated”.
Diane and Gina were asked to speak about Café in the Church and were one of only two case studies interviewed at the launch. Diane shared about the history of Holy Trinity, the difficulties of heating such a large space, and the difference that improving accessibility has made to visitors. Gina then described how the café operated and how they have networked with local groups providing support for those affected by dementia or bereavement, and their part in the local Later Life Alliance.
Diane said:
“It was a great privilege to represent all those involved in Café in the Church at Holy Trinity as we continue to serve the needs of our community.”
David Barclay, director of the Warm Welcome Campaign, wrote in the foreword to the report:
“If we are to see a ‘decade of national renewal’, we need community, we need each other and we need our heritage buildings. Partnering with heritage church buildings and church communities [...] would seem to be an obvious next step [for those concerned] with community wellbeing”.