Scoping case studies consisted of in-depth interviews about church buildings and community characteristics with support from a subset of deaneries and parishes in the Diocese of Ely, supplemented with secondary information about the communities they represent.
The findings from these were used to develop case studies of church building use, clusters of church buildings uses, and the data categories in the survey.
Forty (40) Case studies were undertaken in total, all of which can be viewed and downloaded from the sections below.
Case Studies
A glossary of all the REACHEly Case Studies can be downloaded here.
Church name |
Case study link |
Church type |
Community reach |
|---|---|---|---|
|
All Saints, Elton, Peterborough |
Rural |
Collaborations with the Stilton Group of Churches and village school; Parish walk |
|
|
All Saints, Landbeach
|
Rural |
Landbeach Village Society; Breakfast Church; Summer Garden Party; Pudding Evening; Coffee mornings; Painting and drawing groups; Heritage promotion; International church exchange visit. |
|
|
All Saints, Rampton |
Rural |
Rampton Action Group; Prayer Tree; opening and cleaning rota; bell-ringing teams; services at key festivals; concerts; champing; integration into village activities. |
|
|
Christ Church, Cambridge |
Urban |
The Embassy (Free weekly English as additional language teaching sessions); The Barn (international hospitality run by Friends International); Christianity Explored courses run regularly; community workgroups in collaboration with The Besom; hosting for Cambridge Churches Homeless Project; craft groups; Baby Steps (group for new parents); First Steps (twice-weekly parents & toddlers group); Sunday creche and children’s groups for up to age 14; midweek youth groups for 11–14s and 14–18s; midweek young adults groups (meal and group meetings); Daddy & Me (monthly dads and under-5s meeting); monthly lunch and weekly exercise group for over-50s. |
|
|
Good Shepherd, Chesterton, Cambridge |
Suburban |
Church hall; Community Fridge; foodbank; church teams; choir; mother and toddlers’ group; activities and support for families and children; youth groups; Arbury carnival; Community Action Day; Holiday Lunch Project; Red Hen coffee morning; Monday Club; Sunday lunches; collaboration with local organisations; Knitting Fund; house groups; Zoffee (coffee on Zoom). |
|
|
Holy Trinity, Haddenham |
Rural |
Caring for God’s Acre; hosting events; collection point; Ely foodbank; Walk of Witness; Flower Festival; Café Church; cream teas; Soup and More; summer barbeque; nativity plays; sleepovers; village picnic; collaboration with schools; clubs for children and young people; Mothers’ Union; integration into village activities. |
|
|
Holy Trinity, Hildersham |
Rural |
Community questionnaire; Café Church and outdoor variants of Mossy Church and Sweaty Church; Home group; Children’s Church Council; Church library; village tea; foodbank; Emmaus collection; arts festival; Heritage Day. |
|
|
Sawston Free Church, Sawston |
Rural |
Footprints Café; café support groups; Sawston Fun Run; Remembrance Sunday parade; Sawston Summer Fayre; Messy Church; craft group; Time for Tots; Boys’ and Girls’ Brigade; tea dance; community survey; integration into village activities. |
|
|
St Andrew & St Mary Grantchester |
Suburban |
Churchyard working parties; Hymns and Pimms; concerts; joint events with St Mark’s in Newnham; pizza by candlelight; school services; Mothers’ Union. |
|
|
St Andrew, Caxton |
Rural |
Walking group; Bell Ringing Society; Enquirers and Heretics group; joint events with community groups; Collaborative events with 14 ministry team churches; church coffee mornings; public concerts; children’s ministry; ‘Caxton Help’ – a joint church and community response to the COVID-19 pandemic. |
|
|
St Andrew, Histon |
Rural |
Saint Andrew’s Centre and café; services in care homes; working with charities; working with other faiths; flower festival; Light Treasure Hunt; Christmas quiz; churchyard clean-up; dementia choir; EssenceXtra; mosaic service; stepping stones for preschool children; Table Talk; TRIO groups. |
|
|
St Clement, Outwell |
Rural |
St Clement, Outwell Welle Churchers Together joint events; coffee shop; First World War project; concerts; guest speakers; Festival of Angels and Scarecrows; Upwell and Outwell Festival; Arts and Crafts Fair; bible study group; village lunch; Craft and Chatter group; conservation cleaning workshop; poetry group; contribution to Wisbech foodbank; involvement with village activities. |
|
|
St George, Chesterton |
Suburban |
Hope Church initiative; social prescribing plans; Circus group; Chesterton Festival, film nights; barbeques; listening exercise; Church and families worker; Ideas for a Parallel Lives project; working with the elderly; community survey; community space. |
|
|
St George, Littleport |
Market town |
Children and Family Missionary; Pop-Up Church; Youth Hub; Church fetes; School collaboration; Youth work; Arts and Crafts Fair; Community Survey; Churchyard available for outdoor events. |
|
|
St James, Little Paxton |
Rural |
Little Paxton Pictures; bell-ringing team; Tots and Carers; exercise classes; Simply Saturday monthly lunch club; Knit, Stitch & Natter group; German Christmas market; concerts; special cinema screening with dementia group; collaboration with school assemblies; social media engagement with benefice Facebook page and website; pastoral care as requested. |
|
|
St John the Baptist, Somersham |
Rural |
Outreach Group; Over Sixties Club; Festivals and concerts; Stall at the annual Somersham Carnival; Servery area in the church; Children’s playground; Coffee mornings; Collaborations with nursery, schools and local charities. |
|
|
St John the Evangelist, March |
Market town |
Parish hall; Revolutions group; AA; Forest School; summer fete; Christmas fair; Children and Families worker; activity groups for children; youth club; St John’s First Thursday; Craft Group; Chat-Tea meal; school collaborations; Churches Together in March group. |
|
|
St John the Evangelist, Waterbeach |
Rural |
Collaboration with Church band; links with other churches; Making Sense event; Beach Churches Together Holiday Club; Third Space Conversations; Café church; exhibitions; Eco Church; Food Hub; Breakfast church in Landbeach. |
|
|
St Laurence, Foxton |
Rural |
Village Scarecrow Festival; School collaboration. |
|
|
St Mark, Newnham, Cambridge |
Urban |
Community centre classes and talks; Concerts and drama productions in church building; Community tea; Community lunches; Visiting group; Church fete; Cambridge Churches Homelessness Project; Community survey. |
|
|
St Martin, Cambridge |
Suburban |
Community groups Frame, Vista, Women and men breakfast groups; Cambridge Torch; Learning disabilities group; Bowls and arts group for seniors; Community survey; St Thomas’s Hall; Day Centre; Care home. |
|
|
St Mary & St John, Hinxton |
Rural |
Art and craft exhibition; Tudor Fest in 2019; garden event; choral evenings; after-service coffee; Youthinc; work party; cleaning rota. |
|
|
St Mary & St Michael, Trumpington |
Suburban |
Harvest Lunch; Christmas Tree Festival; Hands on the Circle (HonC!) stay and play group; Mothers of Pre-schoolers (MOPS) and their creche (Moppets); Music Together Group; Community survey; Church and Community Families Outreach Worker; Church Cornerstone; Collaboration with primary schools including ‘Open the Book’ assemblies. |
|
|
St Mary the Virgin, Feltwell |
Rural |
Community information point; support group; after-service coffee; churchyard wall repair project; lecture series; music festival; village yard sale; Festival of Light; harvest auction; Open Tower Day; Teddy Bear service; exhibitions; community survey. |
|
|
St Mary the Virgin, Fen Ditton |
Rural |
Community survey; Church fete; BBQ; Quizzes; Concerts. |
|
|
St Mary the Virgin, Great Abington |
Rural |
Collaboration with St Mary’s church in Little Abington; Spacious churchyard available for outdoors events. |
|
|
St Mary the Virgin, Linton |
Rural |
Scarecrow Summer Festival; Community Peace Garden. |
|
|
St Mary, Bartlow |
Rural |
Bartlow Village Association; The Three Counties Charity Walk; Church and Community Volunteers; Grave Adoption Initiative. |
|
|
St Mary, Beachamwell |
Rural |
Local group activities in the village hall; coffee in the church; social events; afternoon teas; harvest supper; community public meeting; flower and brass rota. |
|
|
St Mary, Comberton |
Rural |
Summer hamper scheme; overseas mission; oasis teas; Holiday at Home Club; children’s craft activities; Lenten lunch; church-school links; Selah; churchyard tidy-up working party; church fete; concerts; open gardens; coffee mornings; parish walk; open days. |
|
|
St Mary, March |
Market town |
Coffee mornings; flower festival; mother and toddler group; foodbank; Mothers’ Union; Churches Together in March. |
|
|
St Michael & All Angels & Holy Cross, Wormegay |
Rural |
Mission Room; coffee mornings; volunteer support; joint event with West Norfolk Priory Group churches. |
|
|
St Peter & St Paul, Little Gransden |
Rural |
School collaboration; Pilgrimage Project; bell ringing society; church fete; Community Café in Great Gransden; Good Friday Treasure Trail; The Gransden Show; A Very Victorian Christmas; community coffee morning and music festival at village hall; Benefice vicarage as a parish hub; involvement with local events; Bluebell-19 community support group. |
|
|
St Peter & St Paul, Wisbech |
Market town |
Rose Fair; Last Night of the Proms; Lunch in the Lodge, AA meetings and community events at St Peter’s Lodge and garden; Church social group; Connection with the Orthodox Church; supporting the homeless; Peter’s Petals flower rota; choir; focus on families and younger people; youth and women’s groups; Little Fishes; collaboration with school assemblies; Mothers’ Union. |
|
|
St Peter, Carlton |
Rural |
The Carlton Project; The Big Sleep; parish council meetings in the church; church’s contribution to village defibrillator; The Big Clean; Safari Suppers; concerts; Messy Church; public talks; tea parties; post-service refreshments; integration to village activities; community volunteers. |
|
|
St Peter, Duxford |
Rural |
Café Church; coffee mornings; Craft Café; Lego Sunday; Messy Easter; Mossy Church; toddler group; school assemblies; pop-up church. |
|
|
St Peter, March |
Market town |
Church buildings as venues for community and town events; Fresh Expressions; rehearsal space; flower festival; concerts; Christmas Tree Festival; men’s group; ladies’ group; Knit and Natter; Sunday Club; mother and toddler group; Tiny Tots group; Children and Families worker; foodbank; Mothers’ Union; pop-up church; Churches Together in March. |
|
|
St Peter, Yaxley |
Rural |
Community Sunday; Community Care Programme; Yaxley Food Bank; Winter Night Shelter; Sparks; Mothers’ Union; youth group; Encounter group; signed services for the deaf; impaired senses group; bible studies group; Green Day; Strawberry Tea; concerts; beer and carols at local public house; Christmas fair; bell ringing team; church and community building in Rwanda. |
|
|
St Philip, Romsey, Cambridge |
Urban |
Cornerstone Café; Cambridge Churches Homelessness Project; Community survey; Visiting programme. |
|
|
St Wendreda, March |
Market town |
Community College partnership; missions; bell ringers; March Christian Bookshop; bookshop; Open Tower Day; coffee morning; talks events; concerts; foodbank; youth club; pop-up church; house groups; Sunday school; Churches Together in March group. |