Church conversion to hostel for walkers completed

A community group has completed work to tranform a redundant church in the Yorkshire Dales into a hostel for walkers and cyclists.

Hudswell Community Charity acquired the redundant St Michael's Church in the village near Richmond from the Church Commissioners in 2023.

Since then, the charity has raised almost £900,000 in grant aid to pay for the conversion work.

The lodge will be officially opened on 24 May by Julian Norton, the star of The Yorkshire Vet television series, with the first guests booked in for the following evening.

Hudswell Community Charity owns and runs a number of venues in the village including the pub, shop and hall, as well as allotments and an orchard.

Although the present church dates from the 19th Century, there has been a church on the site for more than 1,000 years, according to Martin Booth.

A trustee with the charity, he said they had wanted to preserve the Grade II listed place of worship, which closed in 2017, and keep it accessible.

"To achieve this, we needed to give it a new use that would generate an income so that we could maintain the building and we also wanted it to be an asset to the village that would support our other community-owned businesses.

"We are sure that St Michael's Lodge will fulfil this dream."

The charity said historic features of the building had been retained, while six en-suite rooms were created, as well as a residents' lounge and dining area in the former chancel and a kitchen in the old vestry.

Mr Booth said they had restored a valuable building and also "created a warm, comfortable, and energy efficient building, with power provided by solar slates on the roof, and stored in batteries housed in the undercroft".

Annie Sumner, another trustee, told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: "We were very keen that when guests entered the building from the porch, they would be able to see right through to large east window and up to the wooden ceiling, so the open design and the use of a lot of glass has enabled us to achieve this.

"All the beautiful stained-glass windows have been retained, restored and given secondary internal glazing.

"The former pews have been re-used in the construction of the bunk beds and dining table and the former pulpit is reused as the reception desk."

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