All Saints, Middle Woodford
Next upstream is Middle Woodford. All Saints church is beside the river in a delightful location. The church was open with a laminated guide and a good selection of leaflets. Also a children’s area with various things they have produced displayed. Churches can be too tidy and it is good to leave things which show that it is a living community. Again, the Salisbury Diocesan booklet, ‘Praying Together; Lent 2017’ and some prayer cards and leaflets (don’t assume every visitor knows how to pray!). There is a votive stand and some brass rubbing materials to use – I haven’t seen this in years! A good website can be seen at http://www.woodfordvalleyparish.org.uk/ with some great pictures but it does lack obvious information for visitors.
There is a wonderful modern window, dedicated in 2013 – picture below.
I have made a start on visiting the churches of the Avon Valley, from Pewsey and Devizes down to the sea at Christchurch. The river rises as two arms which meet near Upavon. Some of these I have already visited so I will republish some revised posts when I get to them. Today’s trip took in the valley from Stratford Sub Castle to Amesbury.
St. Lawrence, Stratford Sub Castle
A wonderful church in the lee of Old Sarum (itself well worth a visit). It is part of the Small Pilgrim Places Network, a growing network of special and holy places – see http://smallpilgrimplaces.org/
St. Lawrence is open each day. There is a good welcome leaflet and information about SPPN as well as a laminated guide to walk around with. These do vary in quality but this one was well written and informative. Some postcards are for sale and there was some prayer leaflets also. It is always worth providing something and I would expect this in a SPP. Also, a display about a link the church has with a secondary school in South Sudan. I found a simple idea – a basket with prayer ideas and info about SPP. Easy to do and effective. Here is a picture.
The Diocese of Salisbury has produced some good Lent booklets – ‘Praying Together; Lent 2017’ which are very well done (and which I will use myself).In the porch a well made history display is shown. There is a good church website at http://www.saintlawrence.org.uk/ with visitor information, as well as an entry on the SPPN website. An interesting and prayerful church to visit.
St. Mary’s, Weymouth
St. Mary’s is in the centre of town. The door was open and a craft shop is run in the church, which was worth a look at. I found cards for sale and a guide book as well as postcards of the Last Supper painting which is such a feature of this church.
The church itself is pretty dark and gloomy, although the Lord’s Supper painting is illuminated. There is a simple prayer corner and book to enter prayers into – more illumination would make this more prominent. There is a church presence on A Church Near You but this gives a link to a defunct website. The proper site is at http://www.staldhelmsstann.co.uk which does say that the church is open every Tuesday morning. I picked the right day to visit quite by chance! There is also a facebook presence which is mainly about the cafe which also is run in the church.
A well used building but probably more could be done for mid week visitors here – well worth seeing though.
Holy Trinity, Weymouth
As it was half term, Weymouth was quite busy with visitors. At one end of the harbour bridge stands Holy Trinity with it’s door open to welcome people. It is well worth going in here as it is a beautifully kept church with a calm, prayerful, atmosphere.
Inside I found a selection of the Gospel Imprint leaflet (these are very good but won’t suit all churches. See http://www.gospelimprint.com/) and some Prayer Trust Leaflets (see http://www.theprayertrust.org.uk/). There are guide booklets to buy as well as a free simple guide sheet. Also some multi lingual guides.
A votive stand is available and several candles were alight on it. As I was looking around, a young woman came in and lit a candle and then sat quietly in a pew. This is one very good reason why churches should be open!
I found a display on Lent – good and a bit different and a display on the people of the church. The latter, is a powerful reminder that Church is about people. 9 entries in the visitors book this year (but it is early!). The church website is at http://www.holytrinityweymouth.org . This has a lovely quote about the church being open – ‘We hope that people in the parish and the wider community of Weymouth see Holy Trinity as ‘their’ church and to that end it is kept open most weekdays.’ Excellent!
SUSTAINABILITY OF CHURCHES – CONSULTATION
The Review into the sustainability of English churches is the first ever government Review into the future of Church of England church buildings. Now is your opportunity to influence the thinking of those undertaking the Review.
The review is seeking the views of individuals and organisations who are interested in the future of England’s churches and cathedrals. Do you or your organisation have something to say? – if so, you have until noon on 31 January 2017.
You might not want to do it now. But you may wish to diarise it – half an hour should be plenty.
I suggest you access the questionnaire from the Historic Religious Buildings Alliance website, as they have given some feedback based on the experience of other users.
www.hrballiance.org.uk/consultations-2/cofe-buildings-sustainability/
The Church Tourism Study has been a bit quiet lately, due to moving and work commitments but, it will start up again soon and I do have some recent visits to add. Watch this space!
Welcome to the website of the Church Tourism Study. Here you will find details of some of the churches I have visited so far about 700 now.
The aim of this study is to gain an idea of what is being provided for the many visitors to or churches. This seems to be a growing phenomena and many churches are surprised at just how many visitors they are getting. Our Monday to Saturday congregation is often much bigger than our Sunday one but the provision churches are making for their visitors is patchy. Some are very good and some are very poor. You will find examples of all these here. There is a bias towards the south of the country because of where I live. The Church Tourism Study is now located in Dorset.
My latest project is a survey of the churches of Hertfordshire and you can find some of these entries here, not all churches I have visited are put on this site. This has been very enjoyable with some interesting churches in this often overlooked county.
In addition, I have been busy sending out questionnaires to several hundred churches up and down the country. This has been providing some fascinating information about what is actually happening. All this information is being written up for a book on visitor ministry.
I hope that you enjoy looking at my reports and pictures. All opinions expressed are my own. It has never been my intention to denigrate churches but it has become obvious that many could do an awful lot better in this area. It is not hard and the benefits in ministering to our visitors are enormous.Do comment if you wish to or get in touch at nigellacey@mail.com
St. Francis of Assisi, Welwyn Garden City
St. Francis church is in the centre of Welwyn. It was designed by Louis de Soissons who was the chief designer of the garden city. Built in 1934-5 it doesn’t look much from the outside but is striking inside. There is a nice welcome notice on the door and the church is open each day. The inside is light and airy. There is a ‘Children’s Chapel’ as well with a good view of the altar. I have not seen anything similar elsewhere.
There is a votive stand to use and a lovely side chapel. The church website is at http://www.stfranciswgc.org.uk but it has no visitor information on it. St. Francis is well worth a visit.
Holy Cross & St. Alban, Brickendon
This is an unusual little church which is open every day. This was built in 1932 in the ‘Arts and Crafts’ style to serve as a chapel of ease for the local inhabitants.Given to the village by Constance Demain Saunders.
It is an atmospheric church which is very well cared for and homely. There is a guide book at £1 and an interesting ‘Tourist Trail’ leaflet based around this church and Bayford, Little Berkhamsted, Newgate Street and Essendon. Most of these aren’t open every day which does limit the usefulness of this! (I found only Bayford and Brickendon open). There is also a prayer board to leave requests. Only 13 visitors in the book this year.
There is a website at http://www.hartfordhundred.org.uk but this gives no visitor information which is a pity.
St. Mary’s, Hertingfordbury
St. Mary’s sit above the village of Hertingfordbury. Built for the Earl of Cowper in 1849-50 it contains much of interest. This is a church, which I feel if it was anywhere else other than Hertfordshire, would receive a lot of interest! It is a fine place none the less.
It is a pity that I found no church guide but there are some postcards on sale and 30 people had signed the visitors book this year. The usual, ‘Saints and Pilgrims’ book is displayed and there is a prayer tree to use. There are lots of memorials here and a guide to these would add much to the visitor experience. This is a church well worth having a look at. The website is at http://www.hertingfordburystmary.org.uk and this does give clear visitor information.
St. Andrew’s, Hertford
St. Andrew’s is a large church in the centre of Hertford. It is open each day. There is no guide book but there was an interesting one on the people named on the World War 1 memorial. This has become quite common and is to be welcomed as it brings that awful conflict to life. There is a large children’s area with colouring materials left out – too many churches tidy everything away and I have often seen children busy doing something whilst an adult looks around a church.
A prayer board and tree, and some ideas for prayer are near the entrance – another good idea. The diocesan ‘Saints and Pilgrims’ book is displayed and there is the Blessed Sacrament chapel for a space to be quiet in.
A children’s group were using an adjacent room whilst I was there. As they came out of that and through the church, it was interesting to see how some spent time looking at things before leaving. Churches need to aware of the possibilities that visitors to the rest of the building offer.
The church website – http://www.hertfordstandrews.co.uk gives clear visitor information. This is a church where effort has gone into providing for the needs of visitors.
churchtourismstudy 