Author: shctuser

Eleven grants totalling £59,000 were awarded to Suffolk churches by the Suffolk Historic Churches Trust at their January Grants Committee Meeting. 

The successful churches are in Blaxhall, Coddenham, Felixstowe, Gt Cornard, Gt Finborough, Hadleigh, Ipswich, Leiston, Lt Saxham, Polstead, and Wixoe, and include a Methodist church and a Quaker Meeting House, as well as parish churches. 

The work that will be undertaken in the churches include installing toilets and kitchens, improving heating and a wide range of repairs.

“During the year 2024-5 the Grants Committee has considered 49 applications from across Suffolk. After a record number of awards (17) in October the year has ended with 11 awards in January. In this final quarter the Trust has been able to make grants amounting to 20% of the total outstanding shortfall in funding of the 11 churches,” said John Devaux, Chairman of the Grants Committee. 

The grant money is raised by the annual Suffolk Churches Ride and Stride Day and the Suffolk Churches vintage and classic car rally Pedal & Drive held on the same day. This year it will be held on Saturday 13^th September.

There are four Grants Meetings scheduled a year and any church, chapel or meeting house, of any denomination can apply. 

There are more details of how to make a grant application on www.shct.org.uk. 

Grants awarded in January 2025

The Grants for January were:

Blaxhall, St Peter                       Tower repairs                                  

Coddenham, St Mary               Window and stonework          

Felixstowe, Trinity Methodist    Install kitchen                            

Gt Cornard, St Andrew             Re-ordering, WC and kitchen              

Gt Finborough, St Andrew        Porch windows                             

Hadleigh, St Mary                     Heating chandeliers                  

Ipswich, St Helen                      West window repair                   

Leiston, Quaker Meeting House Renew heating                              

Lt Saxham, St Nicholas           Window repairs                            

Polstead, St Mary                      Tower repairs                                  

Wixoe, St Leonard                       Re-tiling roofs                

The next Grants Meeting is on 14th April. Click HERE for how to apply.  

Minster-Making Ceremony
Sunday 19 January 10.30am
St Mary-le-Tower Church, Ipswich IP1 3BE

The historic official redesignation service of St Mary le Tower to Minster, led by Bishop Martin.  Open to all.

Also:

The making of Ipswich, the call of its minster
Friday 17 January, 7.30pm
St Mary-le-Tower Church, Ipswich IP1 3BE

Let Richard Edgar Wilson lead you through the story of Ipswich and its soon-to-be minster church.  An evening of entertainment through story and music tracing the historical and cultural history of Ipswich from the medieval to the present day.  World premieres of works written for the occasion will be performed by musicians from Ipswich Minster, Framlingham College and Ipswich School featuring performance from the Ravenscroft Consort and Kathryn Parry.  Free entry.

Church open day
Saturday 18 January, all day
St Mary-le-Tower Church, Ipswich IP1 3BE

The soon-to-be minster welcomes all people to explore and enjoy the beautiful church.  The café will be open all day with children’s activities, sculpture and stained glass exhibits.  Join a free church tour at 12.00pm.

Children’s Singing Workship
Saturday 18 January, 10.30am to 11.30am
St Mary-le-Tower Church, Ipswich IP1 3BE

Join this free music event for an hour of singing and music making in the church.  Enjou songs, play junk percussion play music games  Parent are also welcome to enjoy refreshments from the café.

Bell ringing Workshop
Saturday 18 January, 10.15am to 1.30pm
St Mary-le-Tower Church, Ipswich IP1 3BE

Come along and explore the bell tower and ringing chamber, and while you are there chat to experience bellringers and enjoy ringing the region’s most famous bells.

Ecumenical Vespers
Saturday 18 January, 4.00pm
St Mary-le-Tower Church, Ipswich IP1 3BE

Join us for Ecumenical Vespers on the eve of the re-designation of St Mary le Tower as Ipswich Minster and on the first day of the week of prayer for Christian Unity.  All welcome.

Haughley Park Barn Saturday 22nd February 2025 10.00am-3.00pm

The Speakers this year are Dr Richard Hoggett on “Changing Beliefs: The Archaeology of the East Anglian Conversion”; Peter Bloore on “Chantries”; Peter Stanford on “If These Stones Could Talk”, a journey around 20 extraordinary Christian sites in the British Isles and Captain Richard Channon RN (Rtd) “A history of St Mary’s, Stoke by Nayland, and its recent major restoration”.

Members should have received a booking form but if not contact shct@btconnect.com

More outstanding service certificates for church volunteers who have helped Suffolk Churches Ride and Stride event (originally known as a sponsored Bike Ride) have been awarded by Suffolk Historic Churches Trust.

The twenty volunteer Area Organisers across the county were asked to contact church organisers for their suggestions for worthy recipients. The latest certificate was presented by Simon Ronan, Suffolk Churches Ride and Stride Chairman to David and Vivienne Taylor at morning mass at St Clare’s RC Church, Framlingham, for 37 years of supporting Ride and Stride, raising thousands of pounds for the Trust and their church,. 

“The Suffolk Historic Churches sponsored Ride and Stride has been an annual event for over 40 years,” said Simon Ronan. “It is the sole fundraising event for the Trust and this year raised £193,794.02. The donations from this popular county event fund grants to churches of all faiths for repairs and maintenance. The Trust relies on volunteers to help with the fundraise and man the churches during the hours of the ride. As chairman of Suffolk Churches Ride and Stride, it gives me great pleasure to award certificates of long service for their dedication and kindness. It is a small token of our gratitude, but also an expression of the importance they are to our charity. Our churches are houses of prayer, but they also have a historic significance in our villages and towns, and are an important part of our fabric.”

The hundreds of supporters walking or cycling around their chosen route from over 500 churches that are open on the day, donate half their sponsorship to their chosen church, chapel or meeting house and the other half to the Trust to be given in grants to help preserve church buildings. Anyone is welcome to take part, not just church-goers. The next Suffolk Churches Ride and Stride 2024 is on Saturday 13th September.

The annual charity day that raises money for grants for the repair and upkeep of church buildings, has announced that nearly £200,000 was raised in Suffolk in September 2024.

Organised by Suffolk Historic Churches Trust (SHCT) Suffolk Churches Ride and Stride and Pedal & Drive jointly raised £193,794.02, with more donations still expected.

“It was a lovely sunny day, with not too much wind, and, as always, a great turnout of walkers, bikers, and drivers, on a day to be enjoyed by all. Over 800 churches throughout the County were open on the day. We thank everyone for their support in sponsoring, and to those manning the churches to welcome cyclists, walkers, and vintage cars.” said Simon Ronan , SHCT Ride and Stride Chairman. ”We have had several runners take part this year, so perhaps that is a challenge for joggers and runners to join in with the cyclists and walkers on our big fundraising day on 13^th September 2025?”

The Ride and Stride part of the event raised £152,985 and half of that has been sent out to the churches nominated by each participant. 

Hundreds of churches, chapels and meeting houses were open to welcome participants, many of whom are not church- worshippers but who love the ancient buildings that have been part of their community for generations and enjoy an excuse for a walk or a bike ride around our beautiful county. 

On Suffolk Churches Ride and Stride, and Pedal & Drive car rally day, several thousand cyclists and walkers of all ages, (and drivers of vintage and classic cars) taking part in the fundraising event that was held in 2024 on Saturday 14th September.

The cycle ride began in Suffolk in 1982 but has now spread across England, and appeals to families, local history lovers, keen cyclists and walkers, church supporters and those who just enjoy an annual trip around the villages and towns of Suffolk.  Cyclists and walkers get sponsors or donations for their journey around some of Suffolk’s churches, choosing their own route, long or short. The money they raise help save this wonderful part of our history, with half going to the Trust to give out as grants for church buildings, and half to the participants chosen church. 

The next Suffolk Churches Ride and Stride Day is on Saturday 13^th September 2025 when the Suffolk Churches vintage and classic car rally Pedal & Drive is also held, with the cars travelling on one of six provided routes, around a selection of churches, ending together at Lavenham. There are more details of both events on this website.

Click HERE for Ride and Stride

Click HERE for the Pedal and Drive car rally

The Friends Annual Meeting held at Haughley Park on Monday 7^th October 2024.

After a brief business meeting that included an explanation from Chairman Geoffrey Probert of the formation of the Trust, the celebrations for its 50^th anniversary in 2023 and associated projects, fundraising and grants, a meeting of 70 Friends and Ride and Stride Area Organisers, listened to a fascinating talk by Rev Prof John Morrill on ‘Oliver Cromwell and Iconoclasm in 17^th Century East Anglia’.

We learnt that:

• Oliver Cromwell actually spent only a few days in Suffolk, in Lowestoft and then Newmarket areas.
• Suffolk churches suffered more damage than anywhere else in England in the mid-1600s when William Dowsing undertook the destruction of symbols of Catholicism, on the orders of Cromwell.
• The detailed dairies left by Dowsing mean that research into the period is greatly helped.
• Dowsing, his deputies and his soldiers removed the inscriptions on tombs, (that asked for the Saints to pray for the deceased’s soul, although the name was left intact), the steps up into the chancel, the communion rails, and any depictions of saints and angels on bosses, pews ends, stained glass etc.
• Some excessive destruction was done when the soldiers ran amuck.
• Some items were spared because of lack of time. The diaries show that sometimes five churches were visited in a day, with distances travelled in winter curtailing the plans. 
• Chiselling took longer than smashing stained glass, and wall painting such as Doom paintings were just whitewashed over – to be rediscovered in more recent times (eg at Wenhaston)
• Church wardens would ‘lose’ the key to the church and would promise to make the changes demanded that they didn’t agree with. Some waited to see what others did before obeying instructions. 
• Some churches were revisited by Dowsing to complete the task.
• There were often compromises or a ‘blind eye’ was turned in some villages. For example, if a village had a church it could legally have two pubs – so one became Royalist and one Parliamentary.  Catholics would sometimes hold two Baptisms, or have a Catholic burial in the local churchyard, but at night.

John gave us some local examples of iconoclasm. They included Ufford Church where Dowsing’s diary lists that 30 items of ‘superstition’ were destroyed with 37 more to be done, and 40 wooden items were also destroyed. 

He returned with a small team of soldiers to chisel off the font carvings and level the steps. 

Dowsing was responsible for breaking windows in 92% of Suffolk churches; requests for prayers for the dead were removed from 41% of churches,  39% had their chancel steps levelled  and 21% had crosses removed.  Fonts and organs were destroyed, and pews ends removed and given to the poor.

Why was so much destroyed? The destruction was undertaken to complete what began in the Reformation. A letter from 1643 explains the thinking was that success by Parliamentarians in the Civil War was assured if they carried out “God’s work” and pleased Him by removing the remaining symbols of Catholicism. Proof? Victory at the battle of Nantwich was credited to the same day’s destruction in churches in Orford, Snape and Sternfield!

Prof John Morrill is a Fellow of Selwyn College Cambridge, a Professor of Early Modern British and Irish History, and probably the leading scholar in the world on Oliver Cromwell.

Seventeen grants totalling £66,025 were awarded to Suffolk churches by the Suffolk Historic Churches Trust at their October Grants Committee Meeting.

The successful churches are in Aspall, Beccles, Brent Eleigh, Elmswell, Felixstowe, Gt Waldingfield, Hawkedon, Hundon, Lound, Stoke by Nayland, Stratford St Mary, Walton, Westleton, Woodbridge, Worlingworth, Rede and Yaxley.

The work that will be undertaken in the churches include improving lighting and paths, renovations of wall paintings, and window, roof and general repairs.

“The Trust was delighted to be in a position to award a record number of grants in October. The volume of applications received demonstrates once again the commitment of those who undertake the responsibility of caring for our church buildings”, said John Devaux, Chairman of the Grants Committee. 

On his Suffolk Churches website Simon Knott describes the unusual 1913 wall painting in the Grade One listed St Christophers church in Lound:

“This St Christopher is a jolly bearded fellow bearing a smiling Christchild. Fish swim, in the water about the saint’s feet and beside the water mill on the bank, a man stands with a heavy horse, The Rolls Royce being driven up the road behind the mill is a self-portrait by Ninian Comper, and when the painting was restored in the 1960’s the elderly Comper ordered a passenger jet plane to be added, flying above the Christchilds head.”

The grant money is raised by the annual Suffolk Churches Ride and Stride Day and the Suffolk Churches vintage and classic car rally Pedal & Drive held on the same day. Always held on the second Saturday in September, the event started in Suffolk and has now spread across the country. In 2025 it will be held on Saturday 13^th September.

There are four Grants Meetings scheduled a year and any church, chapel or meeting house, of any denomination can apply. 

There are more details of how to make a grant application on www.shct.org.uk. 

116 cars were given a route around churches, divided between seven starting points. Belchamp Hall was one of them and Miranda Hiscocks has sent us these photos… what a great display of vehicles!

We love to hear what happened at Suffolk Churches Ride and Stride 2024 – and at Pedal and Drive. Please see them to us, with a photo if possible.

Well done to everyone who took part!

JAMES SEAGAR

Pre-race: My boys have been wanting to do something for a local charity for sometime now and this event is perfect. We are all keen runners and cyclists! I have planned a route, I will be running and Bobbie and Jack aged 12 will be biking. The route will take us 42 miles across the Suffolk Countryside and will visit 21 Churches on our way. 

• Lawshall All Saints

• Shimpling St George’s 

• Hartest All Saints

• Somerton St Margaret 

• Boxted All Saints

• Glemsford St Mary

• Glemsford Tye Green Meth

• Long Melford Holy Trinity

• Long Melford St Catherine

• Lavenham St Peter and Paul

• Brent Eleigh St Mary

• Preston St Mary

• Thorpe Morieux St Mary

• Cockfield St Peter

• Cockfield Congressional 

• Bradfield St Claire 

• Bradfield St George 

• Little Welnetham St Mary Mag

• Great Welnetham St Thomas 

• Bradfield Methodist 

• Stanningfield St Nicholas 

Then finish back at Lawshall All Saints. 

Update from James Seagar: We had a brilliant day making so many memories. The boys did amazing. We covered 40 miles and 19 Churches (missed two of the list due to falling behind on time) we got to the last Church on the list (Stanningfield) at 16:50

MARY LUXMOORE-STYLES

At Flowton the elephant and baby elephant on the wind vane is because the travelling  circus overwintered in the fields beside at Flowton church.

JAMES CARTLIDGE, MP.

James Cartlidge, MP, a keen cyclist, who was taking part in Suffolk Churches Ride and Stride for the 6^th year, raising money for the Trust and St Andrew’s church, Gt Cornard. 

“I choose a different church to support each year,” he explained, “and I try to get to about twenty churches on the day. Today I’ve been out to Somerton, the furthest point of my constituency westwards. Last year for Hadleigh I raised well over £1000! I had a really bad puncture today at Boxtead church near Glemsford, fixed it with help, but coming down the hill quite fast at Shimpling, it went again and I nearly came off! An American chap helped me, and we found I had a broken valve.”

Swapping bikes, he made it to Lavenham and then completed his journey.

DAVID MILLER

Here’s a picture of Hector & Hugo (& Sarah) taking part in Ride & Stride, visiting St Mary-le-Tower this afternoon.Hector & Hugo are seasoned church-crawlers & have visited all c.500 Suffolk churches of medieval foundation.

GREG SPRAY

Greg called into a quilt exhibition on his ride! The quilt exhibition at Gt Glenham church had lots of Ride & Stride visitors plus quilt aficionados.

NORMAN KELLY

Another of our wonderful volunteer Area Organisers, Norman Kelly, was out on his bike again.

Suffolk Churches Ride and Stride / Pedal and Drive 2024

The tyres are being pumped, the walking boots pulled from hall cupboards and the old cars are being polished for the big churches fundraiser on Saturday.

Over one hundred veteran and classic car owners have signed up for Pedal and Drive, the churches car rally, but the numbers of cyclists and walkers taking part will only be known after the event as anyone can take part in Ride and Stride, in return for donations or sponsorship. Hundreds of volunteers will be sitting in the 500 or so Suffolk churches, chapels and meeting houses taking part and they will welcome participants and provide refreshments. 

“This is Suffolk Historic Churches Trust only fundraising event and it began in Suffolk in 1982, but is now run, always on the second Saturday in September, across the country. We especially wish good luck to our surrounding counties, Essex and Norfolk,” said Simon Ronan, the Chairman of Suffolk Churches Ride and Stride. “All cyclists and walkers can nominate which church will receive half their sponsor money while the other half comes to the Trust to give out as grants for church buildings. There is still time to get involved and the details are on our website or in participating churches.”

Last year, the September event raised a record £200,312.70, from people who chose their own route, some visiting just a few churches and others who undertake much longer journeys!  Those on mobility scooters and electric bikes are also welcome and a photography competition for participants is also held, with details on the Trust website. 

Suffolk Churches Pedal & Drive car rally, has the cars travelling a provided route from some of the county’s country houses, around a selection of churches, to then meet up in the afternoon in Lavenham. 

Full details of how to take part in Ride and Stride and Pedal & Drive are on this Trust website, including sponsor forms and a list of participating churches. 

Donations and sponsorship can be collected via Just Giving.

The event appeals to families, local history lovers, keen cyclists and walkers, church supporters and those who just enjoy a day out around the villages and towns of Suffolk.