St Sampsons Church Awarded £200k grant from The National Lottery Heritage Fund


Securing the Future of a Historic Landmark

The congregation of St Sampson’s Church, South Hill, is delighted to announce that it has been awarded a £200,000 grant from The National Lottery Heritage Fund to safeguard the future of the Grade I listed building and increase public engagement with its rich heritage.

This transformative funding will enable urgent restoration of the church’s roof and ceiling, which have suffered extensive deterioration. With 50% of the roof and ceiling now set to be repaired, the church takes a major step towards being removed from the Heritage at Risk Register.

St Sampsons Church is one of the oldest and most historically significant buildings in the region. Without this funding, its structural decline would have continued, threatening both its physical stability and the history and community stories it holds.

In addition to vital structural repairs, the grant will support the refurbishment and rehanging of the church’s ancient bells—an enduring symbol of community and tradition. A new digital trail and tower tour will also be developed, offering interactive and educational experiences for visitors and helping to share the story of St Sampsons with a wider audience.

This project reflects The National Lottery Heritage Fund’s investment principles by:
– Saving heritage: preserving a Grade I listed building and its historic bells.
– Protecting the environment: following sustainable restoration practices.
– Inclusion, access and participation: creating a digital trail and volunteer opportunities and hosting community events.
– Organisational sustainability: strengthening the church’s role as a community hub.

Church leaders, local residents, and heritage supporters are united in their gratitude for this support. This award not only preserves a cornerstone of local history but also increases engagement with the church’s remarkable legacy.

Reverend Andy Atkins, Vicar of St Sampsons Church, said:
“We are thrilled to have received this support from The National Lottery Heritage Fund. Thanks to National Lottery players, we can now protect the future of St Sampsons Church and share its story with the wider community.”

Look out for upcoming events to view the stripped-back ceilings and follow the progress of the bells project. Visit our website for updates and opportunities to get involved.


For further information, images and interviews please contact:
Judith Ayers  judithayers@yahoo.co.uk  Phone.07748 773416 or

Miranda Lawrance-Owen mlawranceowen@icloud.com  Phone. 07595878867

Notes to editors

About The National Lottery Heritage Fund

Our vision is for heritage to be valued, cared for and sustained for everyone, now and in the future. That’s why as the largest funder for the UK’s heritage we are dedicated to supporting projects that connect people and communities to heritage, as set out in our strategic plan, Heritage 2033. Heritage can be anything from the past that people value and want to pass on to future generations. We believe in the power of heritage to ignite the imagination, offer joy and inspiration, and to build pride in place and connection to the past. Over the next 10 years, we aim to invest £3.6billion raised for good causes by National Lottery players to make a decisive difference for people, places and communities.

heritagefund.org.uk

Follow @HeritageFundUK on Twitter/X, Facebook and Instagram and use #NationalLottery #HeritageFund

SHARE AGM Sept. 23rd 2025 7:30pm


Its been a busy year for SHARE. TAKE A LOOK at what’s be happening.

We need extra help with running the group. We could do so much more then. Otherwise we’ll just tick along and miss many opportunities.

Email SHARE@south-hill.co.uk or speak to David, Mel or Astrid

Take notes at monthly committee meetings. In person or Facetime.

Arrange visits to places of interest to the group.

Update the SHARE web page to be more engaging and less clunky.

Directors to help shape the groups future, ideally individuals with fresh ideas, leadership, organisational & management skills.

Ideas for future projects and Project manager to bring to fruition.

Liaison to improve connections with local communities by attending meetings and events.

Book keeper and a Financial Director. We may well have to pay for these services.

SHARE sponsoring classes at the Horticultural show


South Hill Horticultural Show August 16th 2025 … SHARE are sponsoring some children’s classes, so any 15’s or under take a look and maybe win the prize money. !!

The SHARE classes are:

  • 107. A model made from recycled items (max size 12”)
    • 108. A4 size poster, collage or drawing depicting
      “How can you reduce energy usage at home?”
      109. A Photo of Renewable Energy (Children < 15 years,
      photo no larger than 6 x 9” & mounted on card)

St Breward Jubilee Rock 7 mile loop July 2025


2 walks in 2 days. STARTING outside the church in ST BREWARD, we headed down to St James Holy well, and the RED TREES installation, which just opened on May 18th 2025 www.thewildcircle.co.uk/redash .

Through the farm at Coombe Mill, with deer, pigmy goats, chickens, pigs. We split our paths here. ONE group headed up then down into DE LANK quarry and up through a jungle of overgrown head height bracken, the other also went down past the quarry turbine house and up coming out at Pendrift… both arrived at Jubilee rock.

Granite from the De Lank Quarry was used for The Eddystone LightHouse 1882, the Beachy Head Lighthouse 1900 and Tower Bridge 1890. Dring this time the quarry was very prosperous and employed nearly 100 local men and women. During the WW1 the majority of the work came from making grave stones and street curbs. After WW2 cheap concrete was used for building purposes and work again slackened, despite this De Lank granite was used to construct the Karl Marx memorial 1956, the Magna Carta memorial at Runneymede 1957, a granite statue of Lord Baden-Powell 1958 and Granite from the quarry was used to build the Tamar Road Bridge. In the 60’s the quarry work flourished again and by the 1980’s up to 2500 tonnes of finished stone per year was being produced and shipped world-wide. The Hydro turbines went live in 2011, originally drills and saws were powered by compressed air now 680 litres per second generates electricity, between 300 – 400 megawatt hours per year using the original pipeline.

Jubilee Rock a 10′ by 25′ granite, is listed as a Grade II monument. In 1810. Lieutenant John Rogers to celebrate King George III’s Golden Jubilee carved this giant rock. He also engraved the coats of arms of Falmouth, Morshead, and Molesworth. Since then, the rock has been spruced up a couple of times and added, Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee in 1887 and Queen Elizabeth II’s in 2012. Read some interesting facts here > https://cornishbirdblog.com/jubilee-rock-bodmin-moor/

From here the routes took us to Delphi bridge and back to the church and pub next door. Thank you Bill for letting us make some noise on the bells and going up the tower.

SHARE Micro AD Farm Visit Upton Cross


Anaerobic Digester visit – 24th June 2025

SHARE members and friends were well impressed by the latest technology and innovation now installed at the Cheese Farm at Upton Cross. Ben Stansfield owner of Cornish Cheese Co and Eoin Sharkey, founder and CEO of BioFactory, who designed the installation gave our group a full tour and answers all our questions. We are so grateful for this opportunity and insight into the future, this system being the 1st in Cornwall and only the 2nd in the country… exciting times for both companies.

Eoin told us how he was originally looking at tackling the sanitation problems in refugee camps abroad, but because of Covid restrictions, meant they couldn’t travel to install the IBC system he turned his attention to farm slurry on a scale that is affordable and ideal for dairy farms with around 100 – 200 cows, the modular system is easily replicated for larger herds.

By processing cow slurry by AD, the resulting enriched material is spread on the fields, plus the system captures biogas, used to power a 15kW generator, the heat generated helps the AD and heat and hot water are used directly in the Cheese factory, all helping to reduce costs.

POWER FROM POO. 4/5 cubic metres of slurry can be converted into 260 kilowatt-hours of electricity and 450 kWh of heat per day. The AD takes just a few days to process the contents of the tank housed in the shipping container, now it is set up, it never needs to stop unless it runs out of slurry. The system can be controlled remotely with an app on your phone!

Ben explained their journey to a sustainable future to date and goals to net-zero emissions. Future plans to cover the slurry pit and divert waste from the cheese processing through the AD were very much in the pipe line and not a pipe dream.

Local to Knowle Farm, Upton Cross, check out their shop for fresh milk, pate, chutneys and cheeses of course…. Bring CASH !

FOLLOW ON FB > https://www.facebook.com/cornishcheese

Read their story here > Cheese Company Our Story ..and https://biofactory.energy/

If you’d like to join us on future visits and support our renewable energy group, you can be a SHARE member for £1 as an Associate Member or £2 for a Full Member. EMail SHARE@south-hill.co.uk

Members update email sent



1.        Anaerobic Digester visit – 24th June

Join SHARE members when we visit a local farm to see and hear about their journey to a sustainable future and long-term goal to net-zero emissions. SHARE have kindly been invited to the Cornish Cheese Co at Upton Cross by Ben and Carol Stansfield who will explain “after exploring various energy solutions, we ultimately chose anaerobic digestion, a technology that BioFactory has made viable for smaller farms”. If you would like to join us on TUESDAY 24th June starting at Knowle Farm at 10am please email SHARE@south-hill.co.uk There are no restrictions on numbers, please let us know if you would like to join us.

It’s a working farm, dress appropriately.  Right here on our doorstep>

Cornish Cheese Company Ltd
Knowle Farm
Upton Cross,
Liskeard,
PL14 5BG

Read their story here > Our Story

2.        South Hill Horticultural Show -16th August

To celebrate 10 years of SHARE, we are sponsoring three children’s classes at the South Hill Horticultural show this year. Please save the date- Saturday 16th August

Class 107 (A model made from recycled items (12” max),

Class 108 ( A4 poster or collage or drawing depicting – “How can you reduce energy usage at home?”) and

Class 109 (Photography- Renewable Energy).

Please encourage your child to think about a sustainable future and we look forward to receiving your entries.

Each class will have a £10 prize money.

We will also be holding our pre-annual general meeting (AGM) talks there. We will have a stand where we will tell you what we have done this year, and we welcome feedback on what you would like us to address in the future. We also welcome any suggestions for future projects.

3.        SHARE AGM – 23rd September

Please save the date- 23 September 2025- 19.30 SHARE AGM.

We look forward to seeing as many as we can to help shape the future of SHARE. As always, we will ask for Director’s appointments and agenda items in August- so think now what you would like to be addressed at the Annual General meeting.

We are also thinking of inviting a guest speaker for the event, what are you interested in hearing about?

Please let us know via email (share@south-hill.co.uk)

Thank You SHARE@south-hill.co.uk

Family Fun Day May 24th 2025


50/50 winner with £276:50 !!

THANK YOU… Mel P, Richard S and Peter T for the photos….. if you have others to share with us please email editor@south-hill.co.uk

I’d love to see any of the 3 bands CODE RED, ROCKAHOLICS and THE METS and The Dog Show gazebo from Camelot Kennels THANK YOU.

FAMILY FUN DAY was a Winner


At the Family Fun Day on Saturday May 24th, SHARE were celebrating, this their 10th year…

THE £20 QUIZ winner was Samantha Reid who correctly guessed 150 balloons would be filled from a car idling for one minute. Congratulations to everyone that guessed.

Members were kept busy, plus had Scalextric cars racing, powered by a solar panel, a child friendly interactive board explaining powering a home, an ironing board was set up showing ironing charged by an electric car! and a board asking for volunteers of some tasks that need filling, namely…

>Some one to read the solar meter at the hall once a month
>Take these readings and report the amount of carbon saved
>A Social Media person to promote the group activities
>Keep a track of who is using the thermal camera
>A rep on the hall committee
>Future projects ideas, anyone, anytime can do this
>A minute taker at the monthly meetings
>The Web site needs an overall www.south-hill.co.uk/SHARE
If you can fit one of these roles, please contact SHARE@south-hill.co.uk

SHARE also donated the top prize for the hall committee raffle, a new air fryer.

And ran the community car boot where people donated a huge range of items to be rehomed and collected £149 for hall funds.

It was a great community day, very well attended by all ages.