St Peter's Croft has amazing artefacts and monuments, and many famous people have lived and worshipped there over its long history - the most famous being Lewis Carroll whose father was rector there for 25 years. It attracts hundreds of visitors a year, and we offer them history presentations using an expert local historian. However, the church has no toilet and kitchen facilities which are essential to support our visitors, many of whom travel long distances. We wish to expand the church from just a place of worship into a community and heritage centre so that all can learn about its outstanding history. Key to the project is the creation of touch screen interactive media centre which will display the history and, in particular, the life and times of Lewis Carroll. Provision of these facilities will increase the number of visitors, and allow the church to organise concerts, festivals, and history presentations.

What we'll deliver:

• Modern toilet and kitchen facilities
• An Interactive Media Centre

Why it's a great idea:

We were inspired by All Saints Church in Daresbury, Cheshire, where they created the Lewis Carroll Birthplace Centre in 2009 with the help of grant funding. This centre now has an annex which displays the life of Lewis Carroll in Daresbury, an interactive media centre, and modern toilet and kitchen facilities. St Peter's enjoys a richer heritage than All Saints, but shares a common link with Lewis Carroll. Visitors to the Birthplace Centre have increased enormously, and we believe we can offer such a facility to Yorkshire. We offer history presentations to organisations like the Lewis Carroll Society that has world wide braches, The National Trust, and U3A as well as universities and local schools. The project will make St Peter's a community focal point, and enable it to broaden its reach both nationally and international. The project has received widespread support from many sources.

Steps to get it done:

• We plan to start excavations for the church extension in March 2018 and complete the project by end August 2018
• We aim to establish the Interactive Media Centre by end June 2018

Overall, the project will cost around £140,000, and we have raised or secured £88,000 towards the target. We are engaged in a wide range of fundraising activities, but need to close the gap on what we need to get the project underway.