Church Buildings

St Matthew’s Church, Tipton was consecrated on 1st December 1880. It is described as being built in brick in the English style, designed by J.H. Gibbons. It consists of a nave with clerestory, a lower two-storey west porch, a lower chancel, a north vestry and a tower with a bell to the south-east. It cost £6,000, which was raised by public subscription. Subscribers included the Earl of Dudley.The building consists of a porch at the front of the church and a balcony. The church building became Grade II listed in 1987. We have a Church Hall which was built in 1900. To commemorate the ending of the First World War a Vestry extension was added and toilets to the Church Hall. A kitchen extension was added to the Hall later and is now kitted out as a professional kitchen. The Hall originally had a stage. This was made into another room which has been used as a Sunday school. Room under the stage is used for storage. The Church hall is used for services in the winter and various meetings over the year and church & community groups all year round.
The church and church hall extend over a large footprint; however, usable space is still limited, we have tried to utilise as much of these spaces as possible to allow for multiple activities. There is only limited onsite parking available, this can cause problems when hosting events, as its urban setting means surrounding areas are quite congested anyway.

The Vicarage is sited next to the church. The original vicarage was sold off in the 1980s and is now a Care Home called Mathias House. From the proceeds of this sale a new 4 bedroom detached vicarage was built, with adjoining and partially separate office/study, on part of the very large original garden. Some of the garden was made into a car park for the Church Hall and the rest was divided into two for Mathias House and the new vicarage. The house is centrally heated and has a good-sized garden. All the windows were replaced with UPVC windows in 2012, a new kitchen was refitted at the same time. The vicarage is fully Green Guide compliant. 

Finances

Due to a decline in congregation numbers and a reduction in income from both offertory collections and Standing Orders, we experienced a financial loss last year. Despite this, we continued to contribute approximately half of our parish share.

This year, we are taking further steps to reduce expenses, including cancelling some previous service commitments. Currently, we are contributing only one third of our parish share, while still relying on the Building Fund to cover essential repairs to both the Hall and the Church.

We are grateful that the Diocese has provided access to an accountant who now compiles and manages our online accounts, as well as oversees Gift Aided donations. To help stabilise our income and plan more effectively, we strongly encourage all who are able to consider setting up Standing Orders and Gift Aiding their contributions.