20th Mar 2026: Professional Stage, Light, Sound equipment – everything is ready for the Grand Opening event.
RENOVATION: JOIN US ON OUR JOURNEY!
St. Nicholas Church in Swafield is entering a new chapter in its history by incorporating a year-round Arts and Community Centre serving North Norfolk. This strategy outlines how the modernisation of the church will create a sustainable, vibrant, and self-funding cultural venue that supports community life, the arts, and heritage conservation for at least the next century. At the same time the church will continue to be a place of worship, serving the people of Swafield.
Two public consultations were conducted with residents of local villages (including Swafield, Trunch, Bradfield, North Walsham, Knapton, Paston, Edingthorpe, Gimingham, Bacton, Trimingham & others).
The first consultation in Aug 2021 directly informed this project. The feedback was 100% positive about modernising the building (this has been the basis for our overall improvement project), increasing the number and variety of cultural and recreational activities, and expanding the building’s use by the local community.
Village residents expressed their support for maintaining St. Nicholas Church’s status as a place of worship with the ability to hold occasional services including weddings, funerals and baptisms (Since 2012 St. Nicholas has been a chapel of ease and regular services are held in St. Botolph’s in Trunch). It was proposed that religious services would be held primarily in the chancel, while the nave would be reserved for concerts, film screenings and other community events.
The most recent consultation (to a packed house) was on the 7th Nov 2025 with presentations by Kit Martin CBE, our architect Iain Walker from Spire, Dr Rev Sally Myers and Tim Payne (project lead for the St Nicks Arts Centre and PCC member). The evening highlighted the need to preserve heritage buildings, ensure that they are as eco-friendly & self-sustaining as possible and continuously adapt to the needs of the local population. This second consultation was extremely well received with all the attendees in favour of the plans and several people standing to express their thanks that the committee were focused on delivering cultural, community activities for the surrounding villages.
The first major milestone on our renovation journey was removing the four medieval bells (earliest 1499) from the tower so that they could be restored and rehung. As the mountings to the bell frame were unsafe, the bells hadn’t been rung as a set in over 100 years, since then only one had been in use and that had to stop being used around 50 years ago.
On 30th July 2025 the firm of Matthew Higby in Somerset removed the bells, they have been restored with no major problems and are due to return in April.
This video shows Boris & Neil manually ringing the bells before they were removed.
You could also see the blog on the bells written by Daniel Stevens here.
2026 began with the installation of outdoor lighting which is essential for our evening events, a temporary outside toilet, upgrading the electricity supply to 3 phase and testing & installing infra red heaters.
24th Jan 2026: following the upgrade of the electrical supply to three-phase, 10 temporary infrared heaters were installed in the nave.
28th Jan 2026: Re-laying electrical cables for the exterior lighting.
31st Jan 2026: Two Victorian style lantern post lights were installed outside the church.
28th Feb 2026 – Clean up Saturday at St-Nicholas: clean & strim of the churchyard, stripping Ivy from the walls and cleaning out the vestry.
7th Mar 2026: cleaning and trimming the hedges at St Nicks Arts Centre in Swafield.
12th Mar 2026: six pews in the nave of St. Nicholas have been removed (and safely stored) to create space for a nice stage in front of the rood screen.
16th Mar 2026: we are so grateful to our friends and sponsors, VIP Plant Ltd, a civil and mechanical engineering company from North Norfolk, which is laying now the removable floor panels at St Nicks Art Centre, – to protect the floor and to level it.
18th Mar 2026: Our new temporary floor in St Nicks is varnished and ready for the grand opening! We tried to match the colour of the stain with the chancel screen and the pews.
20th Mar 2026: Professional Stage, Light, Sound equipment – everything is ready for the Grand Opening event.
21st Mar 2026: St Nicks Arts Centre Grand Opening event. The feedback was great: – Congratulations on a brilliant launch for St Nicks At Centre! What a beautiful night! – It was a truly amazing event, and the acoustics were brilliant! – Wow – that was a great night!! – such a lovely atmosphere! – What a great evening. So many good things to enjoy!
21st Mar 2026: This is the Soul Setters, one of two amazing bands played at the Grand Opening event at St Nicks Arts Centre, with an upbeat, energetic performance!
21st Mar 2026: The Offbeat Collective – dynamic, big-band–style ensemble with vibrant energy, they delivered feel-good happy reggae at the Grand Opening.
St Nicks Arts Centre will serve as a model of how an historic rural church can evolve into a thriving arts and community hub without losing its sacred and heritage identity. This initiative ensures that St Nicholas remains at the heart of Swafield and the local area — not only as a spiritual space, but as a beacon for creativity, learning and community spirit for generations to come.
We would like to thank the following organisations who are generously helping fund our restoration journey:
Many thanks to our sponsors & partners who include:
