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Northamptonshire Historic Churches Trust Ride+Stride

Saturday 10 September 2022

After the death of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II on Thursday 8 September, our organiser Dorrie received an email from the County HCT to say: "In accordance with the guidance that whilst we are in national mourning celebratory events are not allowed, quiet community activities are. Many of us might welcome a chance for a quiet reflective walk or cycle ride and the opportunity to visit churches for moments of silence". This removed any confusion or worry that churches may have felt about whether they should go ahead, and some Striders visiting St Matthew’s did express concern and were gratified to hear this.

Many thanks to those who volunteered to be Recorders for this year’s event on Saturday 10 September – Tony, Carol and Liz – it was much appreciated, and to make it even more enjoyable for them Dorrie drew up a rolling rota so that everyone did a two-hour stint but just one hour with the same person! This allowed her as the organiser to do one hour with Tony from 10am till 11am, then hand over the seat to Carol, who sat with Tony and then Liz till she got back at 1pm to do the final hour with Liz. It was good to be able to welcome people into St Matthew’s (visitors were drawn by the Heritage weekend too), and in the two hours ‘off’ Dorrie ticked off a few churches as a ‘Strider’.

Having visited several of the Northampton churches taking part on previous occasions, and with no-one else volunteering to stride this year, this was a ‘get them in’ exercise! So having been recorded by Tony she hot-footed it to Abington Park and the Church of St Peter and St Paul. In previous years our Striders had followed a route into town via the Kettering Road, clocking in at a good number of churches as they went, but this year St Michael’s and Queensgrove Methodist Church weren’t taking part, nor St Giles in the town centre, where they used to take their lunch break. So it provided an opportunity for a change!

From Ss Peter and Paul it was straight on to Christchurch on Wellingborough Road, where she did linger awhile as she met Sue, who used to worship at St Matthew’s for many years; she wanted to ask how people were, and they shared a bit of gossip… Then as time was getting on, it was straight down the Wellingborough Road, through to Billing Road and up to Victoria Road Congregational Church, where a coffee morning was in full swing. But it was home to a welcome mug of tea and a ready-prepared sandwich before the 1pm stint with Liz.

When Liz locked up at 2pm there was more ‘striding’ to be done – the bus into town to walk round the town centre churches, first to Holy Sepulchre, then back and down Gold Street and Marefair to Castle Hill United Reformed Church and then St Peter’s, before finishing at All Saints. Tiredness was now beginning to take over, but the end was in sight…

It was the bus back to Kingsley Park Terrace and the last port of call – KP Methodist Church. Phew. There is nothing in the rules (what rules?!) to say you have to walk from your home and back to your home, but transport to a group of churches is surely ok for an ‘officially’ elderly pensioner with dodgy knees… Anyway, by the time Dorrie did get home she could not have walked another step and felt that between the Recorders and her, St Matthew’s had done their bit to earn their sponsorship money!

So to the lovely people who did sponsor, seventeen individuals/couples – thank you so much! This year we raised £375 for the Trust, which means that half of it, £187.50, came back in due course to St Matthew’s.

So why do we do it? Ride+Stride, annually on the second Saturday in September, raises money for the Historic Churches Trust, all over the country. This is such a worthwhile charity to help — Churches and chapels throughout the UK are in desperate need of help, just as we were when St Matthew’s received the very substantial amount of £10,000 from the Trust a few years ago for our major building works. So it’s good to show our thanks by helping others out.

 

 

 
 
 

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