The Church

09/03/2026

Artist required 🙋🖼️

We are looking to have a couple of drawings made of how the church will look when completed. This could be a watercolour, sketch or another suitable format.

If anyone is interested in helping us with this or knows someone who might be, please email me at [email protected]

Thank you - Paul

06/03/2026

Good news! 🥳

Planning permission has eventually been submitted after many delays. This is for "change of use" from the auction house (what it used to be with the old owners) to our plans of a bistro business with community aspects and more!

Once this has been approved, we can start building work properly but in the meantime, we will be cracking on with smaller and lower cost remedial jobs.

We really do hope you like what we’re trying to do; improving the area and saving the church from demolition.There will be some tweaks along the way to these plans but this is the broader plan.

Can we kindly ask you for some extra support, if you can spare a couple of minutes to go into the planning portal (link below), type in reference number “260085”, click the application and click “comment on this application” you can leave your positive comments until 18.03.2026 and you can view the plans. Sometimes this doesn’t work so if not, if you simply search for plans in the last 31 days we are on page 4 or 5 currently.

Alternatively, click the “comment on this application” link below to go straight to the comments section. These extra positive comments may help us achieve planning permission faster and gives the council planners a good idea of the support we have.

Link to planning portal: https://planning.southtyneside.info/Northgate/PlanningExplorer/ApplicationSearch.aspx

“Comment on this application” link: https://planning.southtyneside.info/Northgate/PlanningExplorer/PLComments.aspx?pk=886398

Unfortunately if planning is not accepted soon or at all then we are unable to continue this project. The very latest the major works can start is April to mid May this year as we will miss the window for starting the roof ready for the winter if later. If this happens then the future is very uncertain. All donations will be refunded at this point if the work cannot go forward. Hopefully it won't come to this but we have to explain that it's a possibility, and be transparent. Ultimately It's now down to the planning dept.

We also still have our GoFundMe raising funds for what we are short for unexpected building works (see previous posts). If you’d like to donate, all money raised will go towards rebuilding the Church, mainly the large rear gable that has to be rebuilt. This is all to retain the external structure as it was and as it has been for the last 130 years. The link is here: https://gofund.me/7de4e46e0

If you have any queries regarding the planning application, please email [email protected] - we all work full time so don’t always see messages or comments on Facebook and therefore would like to direct all queries into one place ☺️

As always, we can’t thank you enough for all the support.

Paul & Family x

Hi, my name is Paul and my family bought a Church! The history & our aim: We … Paul Taylor needs your support for Rebuilding a church, reviving a community!

13/02/2026

Hello, it's February already... but Happy New Year! 🥳

Just a quick update from us to keep everyone in the loop.

You may have noticed we haven't updated in a while due to there not much happening on site at the moment because of the bad weather these past few months, but plenty has been going on behind the scenes.

We have recently had our final reports completed for the noise and odour assessments. We need these to assess any impact from the bistro and help us mitigate any disturbances to the surrounding neighbourhood.

Over the past 3 mths we've struggled to gain insight from structural engineers and it’s been difficult to get things moving. Hopefully we are now back on track.

In other news, we’re so grateful for the donations so far on our GoFundMe. All of the funds raised here will be used for the additional costs we will have to incur due to unexpected issues with the rear gable that holds the large arch. These funds will help towards its rebuild costs (unfortunately we will lose the old arch) as this work has had a huge detrimental effect on our budget.

Through our own funds and personal remortgage we can now gain a good chunk of the rebuild costs and once we can raise the remainder, the main works will hopefully start. In the meantime, we will continue some smaller lower cost repair jobs but we are still many £1000s short. With your continued support, it adds to the goal of keeping the church for the future. All funds received are ring fenced and should the rebuild not go ahead then all funds will be refunded to each individual who has kindly donated. So if you would like to donate, please do so on the link below.

https://gofund.me/7f7bdbd2f

We will be updating progress in more detail in a few weeks.

Thanks for any help & your continued support.

Paul 🤍

Hi, my name is Paul and my family bought a Church! The history & our aim: We … Paul Taylor needs your support for Rebuilding a church, reviving a community!

11/11/2025

⭐️BBC have done another article on our story!⭐️

We were approached to do a little piece for the BBC again and thought we would share.

Thank you, from the bottom of our hearts, for the donations so far and anyone who has liked, shared or given us support in any way🤍

You can read the article here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c2052y9gdqeo

Our GoFundMe: https://gofund.me/3be7ce6b1

Follow us on Instagram: https://gofund.me/3be7ce6b1

Our email: [email protected]

The family bidding to save a derelict Jarrow church warn costs have escalated to a worrying point.

09/11/2025

Due to unforeseen extra costs involved with the rebuild, we have now set up a GoFundMe page ⭐️
Our main aim from the beginning was to save this church from demolition. We’ve had so many lovely people giving us their support so far and many have asked over the months where they could donate — so here it is! 💛

We aren’t a big business with endless funds though, just passionate people trying to save a building full of history, memories and stories and then hopefully repurpose it to retain it for future generations.

We’ve held off creating this fundraising page for as long as possible. We were wanting to use our own funds with the addition of other funding options that we did hope we could find — but with all doors closed on us currently, we now wont have enough to complete the rebuild so we’re reaching out to our community for some support. Our goal is to create something special that also gives back, and we hope that any help we receive now will be reflected in the positive impact we’ll bring to the community in the future.
All funds raised will go directly towards the actual rebuild of The Church. We understand times are tough and we will never push, but any donations or even sharing our story would be appreciated more than you can imagine.

Our target is around £50k, this is the amount we are short of the total rebuild cost we need, this still relies on volunteers to help with best part of the rebuild so please get in touch if you can help on site. The costs have been estimated from research and professional advice and any amount we raise will help towards the rebuild costs including, but not limited to: roof, steel structures, windows and new floors etc. We will be setting smaller targets as we go however, to try and reach as much as possible. For more details please visit the Go Fund Me page on the link below.

If you do want to be part of helping us bring this ruined Church building to life and create a new history for it, we and the wider community would be incredibly thankful.

Please click on the link or the photo below if you would like to help.

many thanks again
Paul & family 🤍

For our full story so far visit our social media pages:
Facebook: “The Church”
Instagram: “thechurch.jarrow

Hi, my name is Paul and my family bought a Church! The history & our aim: … Paul Taylor needs your support for Rebuilding a church, reviving a community!

02/11/2025

(A bit of) bad news & long post …

Since we have finished clearing the church over the past month or so we have organised several reports and surveys, which the planning department need for the application. We have recently received the structural engineers report and unfortunately it’s not great news.

The lovely arch at the rear of the church as seen on the attached pics has to be demolished due to a slight inward tilt, the full gable end needs to be rebuilt using steelwork as support but we cant replace the lovely arch. This along with several other unexpected internal structural jobs that require substantial work, is going to be extra costly.

We have also tried several different avenues so far for funding and can’t get anything. Over the next few days we will carefully reassess all costs. We would like to emphasise that we have given it our best shot so far and we really want to keep trying, but we do have to consider whether it is now a viable and feasible plan.

In the mean time if anyone can offer guidance or help in the following areas at low or no cost, we’d be so grateful:

- Architects: or simply anyone who can draw plans for a planning application. We have been let down recently and other quotes for architects have been extremely costly.
- Advice: anyone who can advise on the possibility of an arched steel beam to replicate the arch before it has to be demolished (or other advice to do with the arch)
- Estimates: on steel costs for the framework to support a new roof and internal mezzanine (currently, we are going to have to pay a substantial amount just for someone to design it simply to obtain the material costs, which may well then be too expensive)

Any help at this point will be appreciated, as always, before we decide on the next steps. We have always tried to be really transparent about everything and we hope this comes across in all that we post.

Thanks again for all your support, your kind comments and emails of support so far and to all our volunteers and advice from different trades who have helped progress The Church to this point🤍

Our email: [email protected]

16/10/2025

📝 FACTS AND STATS SO FAR 📝

After 6 months of clearing the church we have segregated all waste and, as much as possible, recycled. By carefully keeping records of what we have done and spent, we can now provide some facts should you be interested. This takes us up to the end of September 2025.

As always, thank you for your support. The likes, comments and shares don’t go unnoticed.

Next goal… finish surveys for planning application👀

08/09/2025

Hi everyone..we just wanted tell the world how proud we are of Molly for running yesterday in the GNR. Very emotional for her and us as she was running for CHUF ( Childrens Heart Unit Fund at the Freeman hospital) who raise much needed funds for children with heart defects, for help for them and their familys and funding for new equipment and pioneering research. This is a charity which is literally close to our hearts and will be one of the charities The Church will be supporting when we eventually open. Molly has raised over £1100 for them so we give her a big 👏 and a huge WELL DONE. Love from Papa, Mama and Jake...

To donate to Molly and CHUF please kindly follow the link. Thankyou as allways for your support. (If you do kindly donate to this great charity Remember to reduce the percentage slider to zero if you dont want Just Giving to receive a % of yr donation)

https://www.justgiving.com/page/molly-taylor-2?utm_medium=FR&utm_source=CL

26/08/2025

Thieves caught at the church 😡

We have caught TWO people on our security cameras stealing tools and other items, and for some reason think they’re entitled to trespass on our land. They could see easily that theres work in progress and alot of what they stole was for our volunteers. We have very clear footage of their faces, what they stole and what they were wearing. However, we would like to see if others have further footage of a blue/silver car at 9:15am on Sunday 24th August 2025 driving up or down Bede Burn Road or parked outside of The Church.

One was wearing blue tshirt, blue jeans and brown/sandstone desert boots, grey/black hair and beard. The other was wearing black and orange high-vis long sleeve jumper/hoodie with black boots and blue jeans.

If they return the items or items worth the same to compensate, then we won’t go to the police with the footage we have. In saying that, we would appreciate more footage to back up what we already have. This is the 3rd time someone has stolen from us and whilst there isn’t a lot on site worth a lot, we need to stop these scumbags (sorry thieves) from stealing what isn’t theirs.
We are trying our hardest to create something special for our area and bring back some community spirit where everyone looks out for each other but there is a select few who cant see this. If we all work together then we can help prevent further crimes in our area and ensure the scumbags ( sorry again, thieves) know we are all watching.

If you have any footage from ring doorbells or any cameras from 24/08/2025, 9:15am please give us a message (we have turned on the message function so you can easily message us on this page, click on our page, click the “…” under our cover and profile picture then “send message”) OR email us on [email protected]

Please also feel free to share this post!

Thank you to those who show your support to us and have done since the beginning 🤍

19/08/2025

Remember March 2025… 💭

☀️ Here we are now, our summer update ☀️

After removing all of the waste and internal floors, we have now deconstructed the mezzanine level and the old oak beams that were holding up the first floor galleries, along with their cast iron columns. Oak beams have been removed and we will (hopefully) be repurposing these. The cast iron columns will also be retained to be restored for use inside the church for the final fit-out. Old plaster up to 1st floor height has been chipped off the walls and now we’re looking ahead to the next stage.

This is where we need lots of extra pairs of hands 🙌🏼 If you can spare anytime at all whether it’s an hour or half a day, we would be super grateful for the extra help.

If you’d like to help, or for any further info or have any questions at all, please email us at 📧 [email protected] 📧

17/08/2025

Hi everyone, quick message from us! We’re working hard behind the scenes at the church but wanted to put the word out.

We’ve been in touch with Kate, the vicar of St Marks and St Cuthberts in South Shields and she has 16 pews to go to good homes, in excellent condition. Ideal for changing rooms or waiting areas etc. If you’re interested, please call Kate on 07990645948.

If anyone comes across some traditional, older-type pews thats showing their age and history then please contact us as we want to try n collect some church memorbelia ready for the fit out next year of The Church.

We will post shortly with another update on the church 😃