The Wiltshire Historic Churches Trust, the organisation that promotes and supports church buildings of all denominations across the county, has launched a new website packed with information about the churches and their history.
The majority of us know our local churches, whether or not we use them for prayer. But churches are also a record of our history.
Most obviously, they offer a unique account of Wiltshire fashions and styles in architecture. But they tell us too about the everyday lives of people who lived here in the centuries before us: how they made their living, the lives they led, and how they died.
This weekend it’s the Trust’s big fund raising “Ride and Stride” event, which next year will celebrate its 30th birthday.
It’s raised more than a million pounds to support Wiltshire’s churches. You plan your own route and raise your own sponsorship.
But if you want some help on churches to visit, then the new website offers 11 different trails, linking together groups of interesting churches around the county, to visit by car or bicycle or – for the really energetic – on foot.
For example you can spend an absorbing day visiting ten churches on Salisbury Plain to the west of Salisbury, taking in five listed churches including the enchanting Norman churches of St Andrew, Great Durnford, St James, Ludgershall, and mid-19th century treasures like St John the Baptist, Allington, where William Morris decorated the chancel but Norman fragments also remain.
Or you can potter down the Nadder and Chalke valleys enjoying an exquisite group of Grade I listed churches, including the enchanting St Mary’s, Alvediston where the man who led Britain into one of its early doomed expeditions into the Middle East, Sir Anthony Eden (Lord Avon), is buried.
Other tours take you round Malmesbury and the Cotswold Edge, or Calne and Chippenham. Each is a wonderful way to find out about churches you may never have had a reason to visit.
On the website the churches are illustrated with wonderful pictures from Brian Woodruffe’s excellent guide, Parish Churches of Wiltshire.
The Trust has a separate organisation – the Friends – which organises for its supporters tours with knowledgeable guides four times a year through the summer months.
Often it can get access to churches that aren’t always open, and houses too – earlier this year there was a tour of churches south of Salisbury and lunch in the historic Trafalgar House.
A typical tour takes in a couple of churches before lunch (either at the home of a supporter or in a local pub), and then another visit or two in the afternoon. It’s only £20 a year to join – £30 for a couple – and it offers a great way of helping with the upkeep of the county’s churches and meeting people with shared interests.
Keeping Wiltshire’s fabulous legacy of religious buildings in good order is a huge task. The best way of sustaining them is by cherishing them and the stories they tell about our ancestors and the land where they lived.
You can find out about becoming a Friend on the website. And if you need a grant for your local church, there are details there too.
Click on photos to enlarge them.
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