St
Matthew’s again took part in the nationwide annual
sponsored Ride+Stride to raise money for the Historic
Churches Trust. Half the money we raised here goes to
the Trust, half to St Matthew’s. Our church received the
very substantial amount of £10,000 from the Trust a few
years ago for our major building works, so it’s a good
cause to support.
This year we were a band of six walkers, Mary (in
charge!), Roger, Elaine and Dorrie, with two
first-timers, Ray and Pam; Christine and Barbara were on
duty at base camp to sign in the Ride+Striders who
visited St Matthew’s. For the walkers it’s always more
of a Ride+Amble, as we look upon it more as a sociable
gentle stroll and a chat…
It was a grey day, with rain threatened. We had our
usual planned route to easily take in twelve churches,
starting with St Matthew’s itself. So having signed in
at 10.10am and collected our day-glo badges, off we set
for Kingsley Park Methodist Church, in our porch meeting
the walkers from KPM visiting St Matthew’s! At KPM we
discovered a little-known fact – that they have the
first-ever built pre-cast concrete staircase in the
country. We declared that we would make this a voyage of
discovery…
With the abundance of churches on our way into town,
it’s easy to start ticking them off – first was St
Michael’s, who share their building with the Romanian
Orthodox community. They have an amazing iconostasis –
well worth a visit to see that! As we left the church we
met the drizzle…
Crossing the Kettering Road, normally next on our list
is Mount Pleasant Baptist Church, but unfortunately not
open this year; looking on the bright side, it meant we
got to our next church that bit quicker – Queensgrove
Methodist Church, where we have our usual coffee and
cake stop, courtesy of Roger, who likes to treat us.
Bless ‘im! We’d started to see other walkers coming in
the opposite direction, easily identified by their day-glo
badges, but walking on their own, not in a group like
us. That’s commitment for you. We acknowledged them with
a bright smile and a wave.
Fed and watered, on we walked across the Mounts to Holy
Sepulchre, one of only four round churches remaining in
the UK, founded around 1100 AD. Doing this walk does
give you a chance to pop into churches you might not
normally have cause to go into, thus giving you a taster
and inspiring you to go back another day to explore more
at your leisure.
Now for the bit of the route where we always go off into
the unknown… we’ve never managed to find our way the
same way twice, and this year was no exception. Anyway,
it was there, lurking round a corner – Castle Hill URC,
who presented walkers with an added treat this year…
Normally they have music discreetly playing as a
background, but apparently nobody this year knew how to
turn it on, so at the last minute they drafted in a live
singer instead! She was one of their Praise group,
singing along with a music background tape.
As we made our way to Marefair, one of us remarked “Look
how close Castle Hill is to St Peter’s, just down the
road – wouldn’t it be easier to find it coming this way
instead?” We shall see next year…
At St Peter’s in Marefair we met Joe again – he’d been
there last year wearing a badge declaring him to be JOE,
and we’d remembered his name from that. Joe was there on
behalf of the Friends of Northampton Castle, whose
Heritage Project Trail takes in St Peter’s, and Elaine
was amazed by the size of the key that opened the south
door, so he let her open it – what a massive lock! That
made her day. As we left, the sun was shining at last.
Next stop was All Saints’ with, as usual, the row of
Classic buses that give free rides around the Heritage
Weekend sites waiting in George Row. And then on to St
Giles’ where we stopped for a welcome lunch break and a
chance to sit down for a bit.
Roger left us at this point and the rest of us walked on
to Victoria Road Congregational Church. They told us
that they share their church too, with the Kenyan and
Syrian Church, and by chance another walker doing the
Ride+Stride from Kingsthorpe Baptist Church, there at
the same time, told us that his church shares with a
Chinese Church. Because they have the service in
English, Cantonese and Mandarin it can take three hours!
Perhaps there’s more sharing of churches than we’re
aware of?
Our longest section of just walking now, along Billing
Road and up to Christchurch, where we met Esmé Godden,
who did an abseil down Peterborough Cathedral a couple
of years ago at the age of 83. Ooops, sorry Esmé, just
gave your age away. Esmé was there on duty signing us
in. They had musical entertainment there too, in the
shape of Andrew Barford playing the organ.
At the church in the park, St Peter and Paul, Abington,
Ray left us, and we mysteriously lost Pamela… But she
appeared again at the Wellingborough Road traffic lights
with no clear explanation of where she’d been.
This last leg is when you start to feel weary, and it’s
always good to get back to St Matthew’s and have a sit
down. We arrived back at 2.40pm. Christine and Barbara
said they’d had a good number of Riders+Striders,
considering the weather had started grey and
unpromising. The church is open on Saturday afternoons
anyway, and this had also been the Heritage Weekend
which had also attracted the visitors.
So how much did we raise? £410 at the last count, so
that’s £205 to St Matthew’s, £205 to the Historic
Churches Trust. Many thanks to all of you who sponsored
us! This also includes money from Olive who also did a
shorter walk on her own, getting family and friends and
neighbours to sponsor her. Thank you Olive!
Ride+Stride is always on the second Saturday in
September; maybe you’ll join us next year?
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