£45,000 In Net Zero Funding For St Thomas Kilnhurst

Published on: 09/02/2026

St Thomas Kilnhurst is celebrating having working heating again after nearly two years without, and especially so as they now have an eco-friendly system in place.

The heating stopped working in church in February 2024 when the old gas boiler broke down. As well as looking at just replacing the boiler the church was encouraged also to look at more eco-friendly solutions. This is in line with the Church of England’s drive to become a carbon Net Zero institution.

However, being in a relatively deprived area the church was struggling to raise the funds to replace the boiler and would never have been able to stretch to the cost of the alternatives being considered. But the good news came in November 2024 when the national church began a pilot scheme to give grants to help poorer churches cover the cost of installing more eco-friendly heating. With the help of the Diocese of Sheffield’s buildings team, St Thomas’ church applied for this, and in January 2025 they were delighted to hear that they had been awarded the maximum grant of £45,000.

With this news the church pressed ahead with a plan based around using multiple air source heat pumps. Applications for permission were made to the Diocese and the Council planning groups, which were granted with a few minor conditions. Bradley Refrigeration tendered for the job and were appointed. All this took a number of months, but work started in October 2025.

The project took a few weeks and the new heating system was up and running just in time for Christmas.

Interim Vicar, the Revd. Matthew Lawes said:

‘We are giving thanks to God for our new heating. We are so glad that our buildings are at a temperature which matches the warm welcome we give each week to all those who come in for our various services, meetings and groups. We are particularly grateful for all those who donated, both locally and from afar, to support this work. We are glad too that we were able to choose a heating solution which is better for the environment, as we know the importance of stewarding well God’s creation.’

Church Warden, Colin Proudman said:

‘It’s great to have our new eco-friendly heating system in and working.  Numerous people with inputs were involved in getting to this point, and together they’ve made sure that the South Yorkshire village of Kilnhurst has a 19^th century parish church with a 21^st century heating system!  I and my fellow churchwarden Simon Langmead are very thankful for all who helped us with this project, including various advisors and suppliers, and for the central Church of England.’

For more information about the Diocese of Sheffield’s Net Zero Action Plan please see our Net Zero webpage or contact the Diocesan Environment Team on environment.admin@sheffield.anlgican.org.