The Abbey

The Abbey, Sutton Courtenay, a charity based in Oxfordshire called in The Clarkson Alliance to help it raise the funds it needed to refurbish its beautiful medieval home.

Parts of the Grade I-listed building, which is used for courses, weddings and as a spiritual retreat, were suffering dilapidation, but it also had to be adapted to comply with the Disability Discrimination Act and new fire regulations. The bill for this work was going to be more than £3 million.

TCA won a competitive tender to manage its application to the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) for matching funds of about half the total. The bid involved drawing up detailed plans and specifications for the works to RIBA Stage E, the development stage of a design project. It also called for a conservation management plan, listed building consents and planning consents, plus detailed costings and a business plan. After detailed discussions, The Abbey secured £200,000 for development costs and was offered £1.8 million for the refurbishment by HLF, if it could come up with matching funds of £1.5 million.