Community impact

One parish, six small wards, a quiet web of long acquaintance.

Great Barr Church Lands works in one place. The Ecclesiastical Parish of Great Barr sits across the boundary between Sandwell and Birmingham, and we have neighbours in Newton, Hamstead, Pheasey, Aldridge, Streetly, Walsall and beyond. This page maps the small impact we make and the partners who make it with us.

The churchyard of St Margaret's in late February: snowdrops between weathered limestone headstones and a volunteer in a navy fleece kneeling to clear leaves from a kerb-set stone.

Above · The south churchyard in early spring, 2026.

Impact, 2024

Numbers in proportion to a small, faithful trust.

Worshippers

62

Average Sunday attendance at St Margaret's, 2024 electoral roll.

Burial enquiries

183

Family-history requests answered through the Burial Records project.

Volunteer hours

1,420

Logged hours across mowing, ringing, transcription and stewarding.

Funerals supported

14

From the parish, with grave-marking and headstone permission help.

Where the work happens

Six wards, one church.

The Ecclesiastical Parish of Great Barr is small in modern map terms: it stretches from the lower slopes of Barr Beacon across to Hamstead in the south and Newton in the east. The trust's beneficiary geography is exactly this area, as set down in the 1891 Scheme.

  • Great Barr

    St Margaret's, the church itself

    The seat of the parish; site of every Sunday service.

  • Hamstead

    South of the church

    Home to several of our volunteer mowers and our oldest electoral roll member.

  • Newton

    East of the church

    Long association with the trust through the Wittall family bequest of 1953.

  • Pheasey

    North-east of the church

    Where the parish clerk lives; where most Friday pew sheets are printed.

  • Aldridge

    North of the church

    Home of two of our most regular bell-ringers and of the stonemason on the Fabric Fund roll.

  • Streetly

    West-north-west

    A small village whose families have come to St Margaret's for evensong since the 1960s.

Partners on the record

A short list of named organisations we work with.

The Parochial Church Council of St Margaret's

Charity 5005930 — the sole beneficiary of grants made by this trust.

The Lichfield Diocesan Board of Finance

Custodian trustee under the 1966 Variation Scheme; provides annual property advice.

Churches Conservation Trust

Partnered on the 2008 east window programme; consulted on the 2026 leadwork brief.

Historic England

Listed-building consent partner for all consequential fabric work at St Margaret's (Grade II*).

Allchurches Trust

Two small fabric grants since 2018; an occasional partner on furnishings work.

Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council

Local authority partner on the Burial Records project and the autumn leaf-clearance scheme.

Read partnership case studies

If you would like to help

If you live in the parish and would like to be more involved — or simply to be on the quarterly dispatch — we would be glad to hear.