Project Manager

As Project Manager you will work in partnership with other members of the senior management team to ensure the successful delivery of all Heritage Fund requirements over the next 20 months.  These will include delivery of fabric reports, liaising with our fundraising consultants, scoping and progressing future capital aspirations with stakeholders, fulfilling all Heritage Fund reporting requirements and being a hands on member of the team.

Key responsibilities

• Oversee delivery of ‘Tewkesbury Abbey Welcoming All’ project
• To work in partnership with colleagues to ensure delivery of project objectives.
• Project timescale and deadline monitoring and management
• Budgetary and financial control and reporting
• Liaison with and reporting for Heritage Fund
• To manage consultation with a wide range of internal and external stakeholders in order to scope and develop plans for the project and for the Abbey’s future.
• Stakeholder consultation & engagement programme
• Scoping of future capital plans
• Completion of project evaluation report
• To liaise with our fundraising consultants delivering significant new income for the Abbey in 2025/2026 and identifying potential sources of funding for future capital works.
• To be a hands-on member of the team working in partnership with colleagues, volunteers and members of the congregation for the flourishing of the Abbey as a spiritual, cultural and heritage resource to the town, region and nation.

Message from the Vicar…

For over 900 years Tewkesbury Abbey has been at the heart of the community - as a place of gathering, worship, celebration and remembrance.  Down the centuries we have been a Benedictine Abbey, a parish church and a place of refuge in times of flood and war. Today the Abbey is a thriving parish church with hundreds coming here to worship each week, drawn by our commitment to daily prayer and our traditional choral worship. We are a ‘Major Church’ within the Church of England, and we are larger than fourteen of our country’s cathedrals. We are also a venue for concerts, large civic events, fairs and festivals working in partnership with colleagues throughout the region. In the past year we have also hosted a number of installations, exhibitions and events, a schools programme, concerts and talks in addition to our usual packed programme of worship and festive services.

Like many heritage assets within the UK, COVID and lockdown presented us with serious challenges to our financial sustainability. We are now responding to those challenges with ambitious plans to double our visitor income and numbers within five years. These plans have been agreed and funded by our Parochial Church Council and are being overseen by our trading arm Tewkesbury Abbey Limited.

We are delighted to have received a £250,000 development grant from the National Lottery Heritage Fund towards our Tewkesbury Abbey Welcoming All project, a wide-ranging programme of works to increase our visitor engagement, including the appointment of new staff, surveys to scope future capital development plans, and testing new commercial activities including entry by donation.  We hope that this will lead to one or more larger-scale capital bids which could result in a longer-term funding relationship to secure the Abbey as a thriving venue, unique heritage asset and national visitor destination.

As Project Manager for the Tewkesbury Abbey Welcoming All project, you will play a pivotal role in coordinating all the activities within it, shaping and delivering the future plans and development of the Abbey.  You will ensure that timescales and budgets are kept to, that the Abbey’s committed team of staff, volunteers and clergy play their part in it, and oversee the recruitment and training of the new team members as we deliver the project. You will be the primary point of contact with the National Lottery Heritage Fund, ensuring that the Fund’s reporting and promotional requirements are fulfilled, and that accurate financial records are kept. The successful candidate will be an experienced project manager and a flexible team player who is looking for an exciting new challenge and the opportunity to shape the next chapter in the life of the Abbey.