After a short wait of just 150 years the congregation of Holy Trinity, Trimpley is celebrating having a toilet!
The church has no access to the mains water supply or sewerage, meaning it had no toilet facilities. With support from the Church Buildings Team and other advisors, the church looked carefully at all options before agreeing to a small external building with a Natsol Full Access composting toilet.
With local support and various events, the church raised as much as it could, but was still considerably short of the £28,000 needed. The parish applied and were successful in being awarded a National Lottery Community Fund grant of £14,940 for the remaining funds.
Sue MacAskill, Licensed Lay Minister responsible for the church, said: “We were desperate to have our own toilet; seniors and young children in the congregation as well as visitors for baptisms, weddings, funerals and concerts held in church all struggled, and often had to leave early. And of course, a lack of a toilet meant we were restricted in expanding our community programme.
“Alongside this we began rewilding parts of the churchyard to provide habitats for wildlife. Local orchid specialists and eco companies began telling us how a composting toilet would be a boon to wildlife. So that was what we explored.
“This toilet is going to make a huge and positive difference for the people of Trimpley and our many visitors. It is thanks to the hard work of all our volunteers in fund raising and in building and installing the toilet itself that we now have such a great facility.
“To mark just how important the toilet is for us, Bishop Martin came to the Church on the evening of Wednesday, 23rd July for a celebration, along with a dedication and blessing of the new building and of everyone who came along.
“I would highly recommend NatSol composting toilets to any church that is in a similar situation…so if you would like to come and see for yourself do get in touch.”
