10 March 2025
A rural church nestled in the Essex countryside isn’t letting the lack of broadband availability hold them back.
John Hughes, the PCC Treasurer at the Priory Church of St Laurence, Blackmore has found that it is possible to bring internet connectivity into their ancient building.
They have sourced a router with a sim card and placed it high up in one of the church windows to pick up mobile signal in the area. Bringing an internet connection into the church building has multiple benefits including Wi-Fi access for their computer equipment and the ability to accept contactless donations and card payments.
This has supported them in successfully fundraising for their Church and Tower Restoration Project following significant damage to the wooden shingles and panelling which placed the tower onto the National Heritage at risk register.
Visitors to their weekly ‘Serenitea’ Community Café don’t need to worry about bringing cash for their bacon and sausage sandwiches and cakes as their contactless card machine can handle card payments.
John explains how their research to find the best option has paid off.
“The solution we have put in is simple to use and cheap to run giving a good level of connectivity all around the building and even outside in the churchyard. This enables us to make full use of contactless giving and utilise live-streaming and collaboration tools when required. We originally looked at installing a traditional phone line with broadband but the installation cost and monthly charge was prohibitive. We would also have had to get DAC approval for cabling across the churchyard and into our Grade I Listed building.”
Their internet connectivity has been achieved at an affordable cost of approx. £180 for the router, and less than £4 per month for the sim card. If you’d like to find out more about enabling connectivity in your church building or setting up digital giving, contact our Parish Giving Advisors, Beccy Hills and Michelle Cottis by emailing giving@chelmsford.anglican.org.
