In his prescient but typically pessimistic 1954 poem Church Going, Philip Larkin wonders: When churches fall completely out of use What we shall turn them into, if we shall keep A few cathedrals chronically on show, Their parchment, plate and pyx in locked cases And let the rest rent-free to rain and sheep Larkin’s fellow poet, John Betjeman (author of the 1958 Collins’ Guide to English Parish Churches) had a rather more ‘can-do’ attitude to the preservation of ecclesiastical architecture and was associated with several initiatives under the auspices of the Redundant Churches Fund — now the Churches Conservation Trust — which celebrates its 40th anniversary this year.

Set up in 1969, the trust uses government funds, increasingly supplemented these days by donations and paying events, to look after the fabric of historically or architecturally important churches declared redundant by the Church of England as places of regular worship, due to dwindling congregations.

The buildings remain consecrated and act as venues for occasional special services, but the emphasis of the trust’s work is on finding alternative community uses for them by involving local volunteers and partner organisations.

Some find new purposes as aesthetically appropriate spaces for art and photography exhibitions or for drama and music. At a more down-to-earth level, some are now home to farmers’ markets, doing their bit to help the local economy.

Nationally, the physical conservation aspect of the trust’s work helps to ensure the survival of traditional building skills such as those of craftsman masons and carpenters, and the continued employment of their practitioners.

The trust also holds workshops in the churches for youngsters, offering them the chance to find out about tile-making, story-telling or Tudor music, for example. It works with local schools, encouraging children to become familiar with the history of ecclesiastical buildings in their neighbourhood.

The trust has recently set up a Regeneration Task Force to try to establish carefully selected churches as financially independent community concerns. Among these is the Victorian church of All Souls, Bolton, where the historic fabric will be protected by the construction of a building-within-a-building, which will become a training, learning and performance centre, and will house a permanent exhibition about Boltonians past and present.

In Ipswich, the docklands church of St Mary at Quay (built in the 1450s) is being restored for use as a mental good health centre, working with the East Suffolk branch of Mind. The aim is to provide a relaxing environment offering a range of therapies, facilities and events.

The third enterprise being undertaken by the Task Force is the restoration of St Andrew’s Old Church — a Grade 1 listed building with foundations that may be Anglo-Saxon or even older — in Brent, north-west London.

Using the expertise of the group Drama Workhouse, it is being developed as a centre for drama projects and other social, cultural and history-based activities.

The trust has 340 buildings in its care, seven of which are in Oxfordshire.

I went to have a look at the lovely Georgian church of St Katherine’s in Chiselhampton. Suffering from damp and badly in need of redecoration, it is nevertheless delightful to visit.

Small and simple, it has a ‘west gallery’ where the band would have played, a carved and gilded altar-piece, and large clear glass windows. The bell turret has a clock face on three sides and three small bells which still chime — an unexpected sound that brings the building to life.

Stephen Dawson, a highly enthusiastic volunteer event organiser at the church, told me about its history.

“My partner’s ancestor, Charles Peers, built it in 1762: he’d made his pile trading with the East India Company and bought the estate to become respectable. The church replaced another one near the river and has its old Jacobean pulpit.

“It may have been designed by Samuel Dowbiggin, the architect of the rebuilt Chiselhampton House. It is unusual. From one angle it looks like a mausoleum but from another it is like a stable building.

“It is remarkable because it is very complete — it hasn’t been messed about by the Victorians,” he said.

The original locked box pew for the Peers family, with its high sides to protect against draughts and the curiosity of the lower orders, still exists, as does the marble font. There are many memorials to dead Peerses on the walls, and a vault full of them under the floor.

In 1952 there was an appeal for restoration funding for which John Betjeman, who was a friend of the estate owner at that time — Charles Reed Peers, historian and Surveyor to the Fabric of Westminster Abbey — wrote Verses Turned in aid of a Public Subscription.

Repairs were carried out, the clock was repainted in blue and gold by another family friend — John Piper — and the plaster ceiling, which had been removed in the 1930s, reinstated.

The Peers family moved away in 1974, and though they maintained an interest in the church through their patronage (the right to appoint a vicar), they left behind a congregation so small as to be unviable.

Stephen said: “The church was handed over to the Redundant Churches Fund. Anyone living in the parish could continue to have baptisms, marriages and burials here — with half the money going to the parish and half to what is now the trust — but apart from that it was used only once or twice a year. When we moved back three years ago it was just being used once, for a carol service, which we thought was a shame.

“Since then we have had more services, two calligraphy exhibitions and an event for Heritage Open Day when we showed the parish’s church plate, which is normally kept at Christ Church. The more events we put on, the more volunteers we get — we had a conservation cleaning day recently to learn how to do things such as looking after the woodwork.”

A special service was held at St Katherine’s in July to celebrate the trust’s 40th anniversary, and its role in enabling redundant churches to be used and enjoyed.

“Because if it sits here empty” said Stephen, “it does it absolutely no good whatsoever.”

The Churches Conservation Trust, 1 West Smithfield, London EC1A 9EE 0207 2130660