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Bikers for churches weekend |
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Bikers for churches weekend |
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Alongside the well established annual ‘Open Heritage’ events weekend every September, churches around the country have their own sponsored ‘Ride and Stride’ events. The event can trace its origins back to Suffolk in 1982, now over thirty counties take part. In 2007, the event raised £1.5m. Participating bikers are sponsored to visit as many churches as they wish — the more they visit, the more money they raise. At every church they visit, their sponsorship form is marked with the name of the church and the time. The biker also signs a form held by the church. Some bikers have been known to visit fifty churches or more during the course of the Ride and Stride day. Most of the participating churches provide drinks and snacks for their visiting bikers. Actual duration times vary from county to county, but most seem to start as 9 or 10am and end at 6pm. Some places have other events linked to the day. A good example of this is Lichfield, where on Saturday 13 September 2008, the Mid-Trent Branch of the Historical Association has organised a morning guided tour, 10am–12pm, of Lichfield's ancient St Michael-on-Greenhill Church and its old churchyard, which historians now generally agree was already a Christian site when St Chad came to Lichfield in AD 669. In the afternoon, 2–4pm, there will be a guided walk around Lichfield city centre, which means that visitors can spend all day in this lovely Midlands city. For more details about these guided walks contact Trevor James, tel: 01543-301097. We have found the following church trust websites containing information about Ride and Stride. There will be others we haven’t identified and there appears to be no national list, so we suggest that you look locally if your county is not listed below: Cambs: www.cambshistoricchurchestrust.co.uk. |
5 June 2008
St Michael-on-Greenhill Church, Lichfield. |
