The Guardian's reporting series on the UK's derelict churches and chapels — and what their slow losses say about the communities that built them.
The series
This tool is a reader's companion to an evolving piece of Guardian reporting. The series is about churches, chapels and meeting houses that have closed or are on the edge of closing — and what they reveal about the communities around them. Not every one of these buildings is "at risk" in a heritage sense. Many are at risk in a more ordinary sense: the roof leaks, the congregation has fallen to three people, and no-one has the £250,000 the repairs will cost.
The series will grow. Each building the reporting visits is added to the register on the map, alongside buildings the Churches Conservation Trust and Friends of Friendless Churches have already saved, and buildings named on Historic England's Heritage at Risk list. If you know a church that belongs on the register, or if you have a memory of one that is already here, tell us.
Dispatch 02 · 23 April 2026
The Welsh church claimed by spiders and ivy: what do Britain's derelict churches say about our health and happiness?Half of the most important buildings in the UK are churches and, even when congregations fall away, they are vital community hubs. But many, including beloved St Tyfrydog's in Wales, which closed in 2020, are decaying. Can they be saved?
Dispatch 01 · TBC
The first piece in the series — TK.This register is seeded from the second piece; the first will be added here when its details are in the archive.
Dispatch 03 · forthcoming
To come.Subsequent pieces in the series will each seed one or more buildings into the register.