Churches open their doors for special day

CHURCHES and chapels across the borough will be opening their doors on Saturday September 9 for the annual Ride and Stride fundraising day organised by Leicestershire Historic Churches Trust (LHCT).

Christian places of worship of all denominations will be free to enter between 10am and 6pm.

Church members are encouraged to raise sponsorship for cycling or walking to as many as possible, generating funds to be shared equally between their own places of worship and the LHCT, which gives grants to churches in need of repair.

Members of the public are also welcome to pop in and take a look around some of the most historic buildings across Hinckley and Bosworth on a day that coincides with this year’s national Heritage Open Days scheme.

In Hinckley, open churches will include St Mary’s, the United Reformed Church and the Great Meeting Unitarian Chapel in the town centre.

Further afield, Ricardians can visit St James in Sutton Cheney where Richard III is reputed to have taken his final mass before riding to battle or St James in Dadlington where many of the battle dead were taken afer the bloody clash.

Thomas the Tank Engine enthusiasts can visit All Saints in Cadeby, whose former vicar the Rev Teddy Boston was the model for The Fat Clergyman in the popular children’s books.

The church, which received a grant of £7,500 from LHCT towards a £161,000 English Heritage/Heritage Lottery Fund reroofing and restoration project in 2014, has a Teddy trail to follow and will be decorated from its harvest celebration service.

Leicestershire Ride and Stride, which is supported by The National Churches Trust, has been generating funds for county and city churches for a quarter of a century and raises around £40,000 annually to help places of worship in need of repair.

For a full list of churches open visit the LHCT website.