Sandon All Saints Heritage
Our 12th Century Staffordshire church has been awarded over half a million pounds to conserve the rare artifacts in the church. Following our award of £94,000 in 2022 to develop our business case for further funding to restore rare artefacts, we are delighted to confirm that we have been awarded further funding of £558,268. This funding was kindly extended by The National Lottery Heritage Fund to a total of £679,659 to cover an increase in the conservation costs and the partial loss of VAT recovery through the Listed Places of Worship Grant Scheme which was limited in the 2025/26 tax year and ceased in March 2026.
The full funding will be used to restore an integrated display of post-reformation genealogical paintings on the walls and the Erdeswicke family monuments and tombs spanning five generations through Tudor times and onwards.
We are also restoring our 17th Century Stuart Royal Coat of Arms and our 19th Century stained glass windows.
The funding will also provide for encouraging more people to be aware of the heritage and to get involved through visits, group visits, publicity, schools the History Group and the website sandonallsaints.com
Great News!
We are delighted to share that All Saints Sandon, has been awarded a further grant from The National Lottery Heritage Fund to carry out the Delivery Phase of our project to restore the rare heritage artifacts within the church and make the heritage available to a wider audience.
The funding of up to £679,659 has been made possible through the generosity of National Lottery players who pay the Lottery each week and without whom the funds would not exist.
The church is very grateful to both The National Lottery Heritage Fund and the Lottery Players.
About The Project
Sandon All Saints is a Grade I Listed church dating from the 12th Century and is Listed for a rare survival in this country, of an integrated display of post-reformation genealogical paintings on the walls, heraldic glass above the altar and the Erdeswicke family monuments and tombs spanning five generations from the time of Henry viii and onwards.
There is also a large Royal Coat of Arms confirmed to be Charles II and two 19th century stained-glass windows by William Wailes in the style of Augustus Pugin, who designed the Houses of Parliament. The restoration of all of these is included in the Heritage Fund bid.
The National Lottery Heritage Fund has made the grant to allow the heritage team at the church to widen the audiences that can share this heritage and remove barriers to access through more regular opening times, events and the development of a website to record the heritage and follow the conservation processes in due course.
The ambition is to support local schools with teaching materials based on the many centuries the church has existed and its own stories that are unique to All Saints and to encourage those who love to explore the history of buildings and their places to come along and support the development of our Delivery bid.
If you, or anyone you know, is interested in getting involved or have connections to local schools or clubs who might like to visit the church, please contact us.
Progress to April 2026 - See also the News Pages
Since November 2025, our lead contractors, Lang Conservation, have been working with specialist conservators to deliver the capital works approved by The National Lottery Heritage Fund as part of the grant award. The majority of the work required to improve the drainage and soakaways has been completed and work is currently underway on the repairs to the external stonework and repointing particularly on the west and south walls of the -church which get the worst of the weather. Internally, the west wall has been stripped of its plaster, replastered and repainted to provide an improved setting to west window when it returns to the church. There are plans to repaint the north wall as well as part of the package of work.
The stained glass windows have been removed originally to facilitate cleaning and re-leading of the windows. It turned out that the quality of the original firing of the colour was insufficient to allow the full reglazing to be done. Instead the stained glass windows will be set into a brass frame and reinstalled in the front of the window apertures with a clear glass but leaded window installed to provide weather proofing. Some of the plain leaded windows have been removed for repair and the first one was re-installed at the beginning of this month.
The Royal Coat of Arms was removed from site by Calibre Conservation and has been dismantled and cleaned and will be remounted onto a new backing before being returned to the church. When the painting was taken off its backing board, it was found to be slightly bigger than expected although it was suspected that part of the original was not either there or on show. The left hand of the painting had been folded under as had the top. When the top was exposed, it is clear that the Coat of Arms is that of Charles II. The frame will be extended to allow the entire painting to be seen. This has been a much more complex conservation than expected due to the damage to the painting just by the original mounting process and the Coat of Arms is expected back in the church at the end of June.
Calibre Conservation has been working in the chancel since November 2025, though some very cold weather, to clean and conserve the wall paintings and the monuments in the chancel. The work that has been done is extraordinary with the colours and intricate designs emerging from the gloom of dust and dirt that has accumulated over the centuries. Work is continuing until May and we will publish photographs of the completed work and are planning a 360 degree tour of the church to show the work which will be published in due course.
Alongside this work, we have launched our 1000 years, 1000 voices celebration of the history of the history of All Saints through a series of events which are set out in our Events Section. So far this year these have included setting up a Knit and Natter group to produce poppies for Remembrance Day, a History Quiz and a Trip Down Memory Lane which includes capturing some verbal histories for posterity.
About The National Lottery Heritage Fund
As the largest dedicated funder of the UK’s heritage, The National Lottery Heritage Fund’s vision is for heritage to be valued, cared for and sustained for everyone, now and in the future as set out in our strategic plan, Heritage 2033.
Over the next ten years, it aims to invest £3.6billion raised for good causes by National Lottery players to bring about benefits for people, places and the natural environment.
They help protect, transform and share the things from the past that people care about, from popular museums and historic places, our natural environment and fragile species, to the languages and cultural traditions that celebrate who we are.
They are passionate about heritage and committed to driving innovation and collaboration to make a positive difference to people’s lives today, while leaving a lasting legacy for future generations to enjoy. money raised by the National Lottery, we inspire, lead and resource the UK’s heritage to create positive and lasting change for people and communities, now and in the future.
Since the National Lottery began in 1994, National Lottery players have raised over £43 billion for projects and more than 635,000 grants have been awarded across the UK.
Each week, thanks to National Lottery players, £30 million is raised for good causes across the UK.
Follow @HeritageFundUK on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram and use #NationalLotteryHeritageFund
Make a donation
Sandon All Saints has been preserved through the hard work of our congregation and vital support of our patrons over centuries. Help us keep this rich piece of history alive for the next century with a small donation. A charge of 0.065% is taken from your donation by the web payment service we use. This means for each donation of £10 we receive £9.35. No further deductions are applied and the donation goes towards running and maintaining the church.