Ride and Stride – report

Dear All

Ride+Stride is over for another year and I hope that those of you who participated enjoyed the event. I thank all of you who raised sponsorship and Berkshire Historic Churches Trust’s treasurer Eleanor Rice emailed a few days ago to say they have received nearly £14K into the bank directly and through Just Giving. I will just remind you that monies and remittance forms and records of church visits all need to be with Eleanor before the end of October. I have also been asked to pass on this message from Peter Durrant, Chairman of the Trust.

“Ride+Stride is the main source of funding for the Berkshire Historic Churches Trust, which aims to support all Christian churches in Berkshire to keep their buildings in good repair and in use as a key part of their local community. If your church is considering a project, the Trust may be able to help – with pointers to sources of information, advice and funding, as well as giving grants. The Trust can now give grants of up to £1000 to assist with the cost of feasibility studies and project definition, which are key to setting any project on the right track to successful implementation. Please can you make the relevant people in your church organization aware of this possibility, and suggest that they contact grants@berkschurchestrust.org.uk or phone 01865-859973 to discuss the support the Trust can provide.
This support is available to all Berkshire churches, whether or not they are members of the Trust, though we do encourage churches to join as corporate members for a small annual subscription. “

Here in Wargrave we are disappointed to say that we had no recorded visitors to the three churches in our parish but on the other hand have raised more than £2000 plus Gift Aid from over one hundred sponsors. We started a JustGiving page for Team Wargrave for the first time and received several very generous donations that way.

The Wargrave Team of three, somewhat fewer than usual because of a wedding and minor injuries, visited (on foot) eighteen churches in Abingdon and Wallingford. Thirteen were open with welcomers and most of the rest were open with signing in sheets. We always ‘stride’ but I was surprised by the number of lone cyclists we met on the way. I would be happy to share our route and logistics with you if you might be interested in visiting these Oxfordshire churches and attach a couple of the photographs taken from the roof of the Abingdon County Museum.

I would be happy to hear news of your experiences of the event. I have already seen some feedback, both positive and negative but here Team Wargrave are already wondering where to go next year, maybe Windsor.

Thanks to you all for your support.

Christine

BHCT local administrator