Northamptonshire Historic Churches Trust

Ride and Stride 2024

14th September 2024

Thank you to all Local Organisers ...

and especially those who had their churches open with a warm welcome and persuaded Riders and Striders to take part.

After the heat of September 2023’s Ride and Stride, it was a relief to have a good day weatherwise. The weather was perfect this year with no wind to impede cyclists and no rain. In Northamptonshire we have a great loyal following in most of the churches now, with opening the church, putting out the register and welcoming visitors; the next stage of encouraging riders and striders to raise sponsorship for their church often comes when it is realised that half the sponsorship money comes back to their church and they are regarded favourably when applying for a grant from the NHCT.

As ever we would like to thank all those volunteers who work so hard to make Ride and Stride in Northamptonshire the success that it is.

Area Organisers

We are grateful to all our Area Organisers who show great tenacity in contacting churches. We extend particular thanks to the Area Organisers who are leaving us:

  • Dorothy Fitzgerald who has battled with many of the Northampton churches and managed to build a relationship with them over the years.
  • Barbara Kelso has looked after half Towcester churches for quite a few years. She has now moved house and is reducing her workload.
  • Cheryl and Maurice Jaynoy. Cheryl’s eyesight is now deteriorating making it difficult for her to continue as Area Organiser. They were in touch with a third of Brixworth Deanery’s churches.
  • Sally McGurk has also stepped down as Area Organiser for half the Brackley Deanery, due to ill health. Liz dealt with her churches this year but we are lucky that Alice Magnay has volunteered to take them on for 2025.

Thank you to them all.

However, this means that we need to recruit quite a few more people as Area Organisers as we are trying to reduce the number of churches each one looks after, both to make it easier for them and also to make it easier for us to replace them when they retire. Please contact us if you would like more information.

Thank you - to everyone else who helped to make the day such a success: the numerous Riders and Striders and Church sitters and their generous Sponsors, and of course Michael Moore, our Treasurer, who coordinates the sponsorship money and writes the return cheques to the churches.

Local Organisers

Our Local Organisers worked so hard to publicise the day in their parish newsletters and social media and around the church, and encouraged Riders and Striders to take part. We are pleased that Ride and Stride featured in many parish newsletters and social media websites encouraging folk to take part. One step on from the solitary poster on the church noticeboard.

Churches that opened

328 (295 in 2023) churches took part and of them 183 (201 in 2023) were manned for at least part of the time, 121 (107 in 2023) open with a register available and 24 (24 in 2023) with just a register outside.

Click the pictures to go to related web sites.

Income this year

Income from sponsorship is down this year, £37,905 to date (lower than each of the last six years). Three parish churches, at Stoke Doyle, Walgrave and Weston Favell, raised over £1000 each and Welton raised nearly £1000. We are extremely grateful to all the church communities which have raised money and of course, a special thank you to these four.

News from the Riders and Striders - 2024

"In response to your request to visit churches at Easton-on-the-Hill, Collyweston, Duddington, Wakerley and Harringworth who had no visitors last year I decided to go across to those as my sponsorship effort for this year. My wife and our friend got to all five buildings."
Richard Lewis from All Saints, Kettering
"The Revving Rev" Over 8 hours I visited and prayed for 39 churches across Kettering and Higham deaneries, I drove 103 miles, and still managed to clock up over 14000 steps walking up and down church paths! Sponsorship raised over £770! Revd Nicki Hobbs, Rector, St Andrew, Broughton with Cransley and Mawsley, Rural Dean of Kettering and Higham

As most of us aren’t bike riders or can’t walk too far we look for alternative ways to get sponsorship, this year our phrase was: "Wear your hat to church with pride and get yourself sponsored for Ride and Stride"

Julia, with the pink and white bobble hat, third on right, got the most sponsorship wearing that hat! Our vicar awarded prizes in various categories!

Jane Gibbs, St Georges, Evenley

Wear your hat to church
Cross Keys Magazine

Peterborough Diocesan magazine Cross Keys reports on the new vicar of Barby and Kilsby visiting and singing in Daventry deanery churches during Ride and Stride Day:-

As part of this year’s Ride and Stride, which took place on Saturday 14 September, Revd Alastair Wood, Rector of Barby and Kilsby set himself the challenge to visit all 25 churches in the Daventry Deanery. The aim was not only to visit all 25 churches but to sing one of his own compositions, either inside or outside of each church. Taking nearly nine hours and covering 88 miles, Revd Alastair played a number of church organs and pianos, but also took his own guitar and short version of an Appalachian dulcimer. He entertained people inside churches, sang to some Highland cattle in a field, enjoyed a wedding dress festival and surprised some villagers enjoying afternoon tea. Revd Alastair said ‘The day left me with an overwhelming sense of God's presence throughout the centuries in buildings, I experienced the day not just as a logistical challenge, for me it was a pilgrimage of sorts, I am changed by the experience.'

Cross Keys magazine has a video of Rev Alastair.

Phew! "Not such a hot day"

As always, Ride and Stride is such a wonderful day out, getting out in the fresh air and meeting like-minded people from various churches with so many stories to tell.

Always lovely to meet the "Church Sitters" who give so freely of their time, to give a warm and friendly welcome and provide refreshments and give out any information of any special features of their particular church.

This year was not as hot as last year, thank God.

I walked to eleven churches and although over the years of walking I’ve visited most of them, somehow there always seems to have something new to see.

The Guildhall was doing Tours and although I have always promised myself to go one of them, it never materialised. So this year after leaving St. Giles Church, I realised the Tours were on, so I booked in. It was 90 minutes well worth the time, lots of history. There’s a Mayor’s corridor, so called, because of its history of all of Northampton’s Mayors portraits on a small individual plaque. I was able to visit the Session House and jails, which were a bit grim, any misdemeanour, a person in land themselves a spell in jail.

Sheila Edwards, Christ Church, Northampton

Cotterstock
Ride and Stride on Four Legs

My nephews and nieces decided that we should support Ride and Stride not only by mounting both bikes and a horse, but taking a completely cross country route! For this reason the adults decreed that we would just make our way from St James’s, Newbottle, to Holy Trinity, Hinton-in-the-Hedges and back. It was a big adventure, and quite hard work for the smaller legs, but we sailed down the hill into Hinton, where the children were very grateful for the delicious cookies that had been left out for Riders and Striders. The youngest opted out of the return trip, but the rest of us made it back to Newbottle in one piece, and even Elsa the horse had enjoyed the day.

Eleanor Townsend

Four legs and bikes
St Martin’s Church, Welton

What a lovely day we had at St Martin’s Church, Welton, for this year’s Ride & Stride, ideal weather for those who participated. Photograph shows the four walkers from Welton who gained sponsorship and raised £960 between them for NHCT. Congratulations and well done!

The four walkers were Pat Kent, Lynsey Dykes, Christine Reid and Jan Shepperson.

A big thank you to all those who visited our church throughout the day and joined us for refreshments. We have three churches in our Benefice, namely Ashby St Ledgers, Braunston and Welton. It was good to welcome walkers and riders from all three, including Mick Ball and his dog Maisie!

‘Hop and Hope’

This year’s Ride & Stride was more Hop & Hope, thanks to my recent knee operation!

First stop was the magnificent Holy Sepulchre, one of only four remaining medieval round churches still in use in England. This was my first visit, despite living in Northampton all my life.

It was built around 1100 by Simon de Senlis, Earl of Northampton who wanted to make Northampton a Norman stronghold after returning from the Crusades. He also built the now-demolished Northampton Castle.

Among the majestic stone pillars and intricate wood carvings is a very thorough display on the history of Northampton and its huge importance in medieval England. It includes the story of Thomas Becket’s escape from Northampton castle in 1164 after his arrest by King Henry II. Becket is said to have run to the Holy Sepulchre for a last prayer before fleeing on horseback disguised as a monk.

Today, he could have popped into the nearby Thomas à Becket pub for a few Hail Marys before jumping on the next train out.

Next, Denise and I visited All Saints to admire the wonderful dome. It’s incredible that Charles II donated wood from Royal forests to rebuild the church after the Great Fire of Northampton in 1675, considering the townsfolk had fought with the Roundheads against his dad.

Then to St Peter’s in Marefair, thought to be the third church built on the site of a former Saxon palace. Although now closed, St Peter’s dates back to 1150 and is protected by the Churches Conservation Trust. We were given a guided tour by Trust historian Jenny who showed us the magnificent Norman zigzag chevron arches and wonderful stonework which was later plastered over by Puritan zealots.

Cromwell and his killjoys really have a lot to answer for. Beheading the King and banning Christmas are bad enough without defacing our beautiful churches.

Final stop was the White Elephant for a cool pint and chance to rest that painful knee!

Nick, St Matthews, Northampton