On Saturday 8th September, Churches throughout the country will welcome cyclists, walkers, horse riders and drivers raising money from sponsorship based on the number of Churches they visit during the day.
We want to make this a special day for the residents of the villages in the area of the Chenderit Benefice ( Chacombe, Greatworth, Marston St Lawrence, Middleton Cheney, Thenford and Warkworth) and for the ten Churches in our area (six Anglican, three Methodist and one Baptist) and we are inviting as many local people as possible to take part.
Traditionally, most people visit the Churches by bicycle. We will organise at least one group of cyclists which will visit all ten Churches but we expect that many cyclists will want to tour the Churches alone or in their own groups. Once they have visited all our ten Churches, some cyclists may want to cycle further afield to some of the Churches elsewhere in Northamptonshire and adjoining counties which are also taking part in Ride & Stride.
There will be a “rolling” sponsored walk, which will visit all ten Churches, starting at Warkworth and ending at Greatworth. We have one volunteer who aims to walk the full ten miles and we hope that many others will join him, some to do the full walk and others to “dip in and out” by walking shorter stretches. If you do not want to join the organised walk, you are welcome to make your own arrangements to visit some or all of the Churches on foot.
And we plan to organise a sponsored horse ride which will visit at least four of the Churches, Greatworth(2), Marston St Lawrence and Thenford. Horses and ponies of any size and shape are welcome!
Not everyone will want to walk or go by bike or horse, and we hope that they will make their own arrangements to visit the Churches by car.
Provided we can get enough volunteers to work shifts, we hope that the Churches will be open for most of the day. We also hope that volunteers will play the organs or other instruments in our Churches.
Some of the Churches will be offering cakes, biscuits and refreshments to their visitors.
There will also be a written quiz with questions about the many exciting features you can find in our Churches. The quiz will be compiled by Walter Stageman, a respected local historian, who would welcome suggestions of questions for possible inclusion in the quiz.
Our event coincides with the annual Three Villages Show which is being held this year at Greatworth School. The two events are often held on the same day and we hope our participants will find the time to visit the Show as well as our Churches.
This promises to be a very enjoyable day and a great opportunity to learn about our Churches. Please join in and get as many of your friends and neighbours to join in as well. And please try to raise money through sponsorship.
One half of the money we raise will go to the Northamptonshire Historic Churches Trust and the other half to the Church nominated by the participant.
If you would like to take part or if you are prepared to work a shift to help keep our Churches open for as long as possible during the day or if you would like to volunteer in any other way (including helping with marketing and social media), please contact your Church or Nicholas Ward on 01295 711530 or Sue Gale on 01295 711267.”
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