Saturday’s sunshine was perfect weather for this year’s Ride+Stride event. Many churches across the diocese opened their doors to visitors and parishioners also took the opportunity to walk or cycle through our beautiful countryside.
Ride and Stride first started more than 40 years ago as a way of raising money for our historic buildings. Participants are sponsored to travel between as many churches as they can on the day, on foot, bicycle, scooter, bus or even by horseback!
It also gives participants the chance to discover the rich heritage of our historic churches, learn more about the history of the buildings and join together with friends and family.
The sponsorship money is split between the Historic Churches Trust and the participant’s church itself. In 2023 Ride+Stride in Hampshire and the Isle of Wight raised over £50,000 which helps to fund restoration costs to the historic churches as well as urgent repairs such as retaining walls in graveyards, fixing leaky roofs and the installation of facilities to make churches, chapels and meeting houses fit to serve local communities for future generations.
Here are a few of the churches that took part in our diocese:
St Mary’s Church, Sholing and Holy Trinity Weston
Intrepid trio, Rev’d Garry Roberts and Philip Andrews from St Mary’s, Sholing and Jo Green from Holy Trinity Weston set off at 8:30am and visited 36 churches on a round trip to Winchester. They rode 53.6 miles in total, arriving back 11 hours after they started.
Jo has taken part in Ride+Stride every year since 2011, it was Philip’s second Ride+Stride and Garry’s first in Hampshire (having done several in Sussex over 10 year ago).
Rev Garry said “Setting off early meant that some of the first few churches were not yet open so it was a welcome sight to see Mary, Malcolm & Peggy at St Nicolas, North Stoneham ready and waiting with the kettle on and a plate of jam tarts. It did mean, however that we were too full up to eat any cake at the St Mary’s, Bishopstoke coffee morning when we arrived there shortly after. Our progression north took us through many more parishes, the team at Holy Trinity Colden Common were busy decorating the church for their Harvest Festival. We then pushed on to Winchester, arriving at Christchurch as they were making final preparations for a wedding. It was great to see the completed reordering at St Paul’s Church and to see the works in progress at St Barnabas, Weeke. Back through Rownhams and Nursling before seeing the welcome sights of the cranes in Southampton docks and a final ride over the Itchen Bridge before falling on the sofa! A truly great day out seeing some undiscovered churches in the diocese, meeting some amazing people and raising money for a great charity that has supported St Mary’s, Sholing and many other historic churches in our diocese. A huge thanks to those who opened their churches and chapels to greet us weary travellers.”
Meanwhile, a group of parishioners also walked from St Mary’s, Sholing to Holy Trinity, Weston where they were greeted by a welcome coffee and biscuits. There was a time to chat, look around the church and discover more about its history.
St Mary’s Sholing Church is in the middle of a refurbishment which has been supported by money from the Trust and is raising money for a new heating system
Mick Humphries is Churchwarden and said “It is exactly a mile to here. We came down the valley path, which was flooded and that was very interesting with the prams and the children! I have wet feet, but it doesn’t matter. We’ve had a great welcome with a cup of tea, biscuits and cake and then we’re going to walk back again. We’ve been absolutely blessed with the weather and I think everyone has enjoyed it. This is a community event for our church, apart from anything else. I don’t think we’ve ever gone for a walk together like this, so I’m really pleased. It’s been a good day out.”
St Bartholomew’s Church, Winchester
Andy Wainewright, Keith Mantell and Lawrence Talks were waved off at St Bartholomew’s Church in Winchester, with another team also leaving from St Swithun and St Lawrence which is part of Three Saints Benefice. It was a busy morning as the church was also taking part in the Heritage Open Days. They cycled through the Itchen Valley, tackling some muddy tracks and meeting other Riders+Striders along the way. They visited a total of 8 churches and raised more than £650 in donations. Andy has taken part in Ride+Stride for St Bartholomew’s for 10 years.
He said “Ride+Stride is a great way for friends to get together and do a ride. It’s also a great way of raising funds for the Hampshire and Island Historic Churches Trust who have been very supportive of us. We did a tower appeal two or three years ago and we’ve got another appeal at the moment called Giving for Living @ St Bart’s which the Trust is also supporting us with. We need to replace our boiler, do a lot of the quinquennial inspection works, put in a new disabled access and other repairs and refurbishment. The planned improvements will ensure more people are able to access our Grade 2 listed building, to experience its heritage first-hand and to better support our local community.”
ACNB (Ampfield, Chilworth, North Baddesley) Benefice
The team of walkers Roger, Jemma and Jo set off from All Saints in North Baddesley and were able to combine Ride+Stride with a visit to churches taking part in the Heritage Open Days. First stop was St Johns North Baddesley which is over 1,000 years old and is mentioned the Domesday book. An exhibition had been set up tell the history of the church, and the story of the Baptism Window created by Sophie Hacker, who has designed many stained-glass windows.
Jo Hooper is the Benefice safeguarding officer “The weather was perfect – it was very hot last year. We then went cross country to St Swithun’s, Crampmoor, which isn’t in our Benefice, but it is so close, we always include it. Finally, we walked to St Mark’s in Ampfield, where we had a look at the Windows into the Past exhibition, before walking to the White Horse pub, and met others for lunch, which was delicious. We walked about 7 miles in total. I think we will have raised over £200 when it all comes in.”
