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Church Tourism Newsletter Welcome to the third edition of the Southwell Diocese Church Tourism Newsletter. Apologies for its late arrival – the editor got rather bogged down around the Christmas period. This edition contains the results of my survey into church opening and church festivals and events in our Diocese – corrections and feedback would be very welcome. Edited by Myra Shackley, Diocesan Tourism Adviser, phone 01777 872457/870838 or dta@myrashackley.freeserve.co.uk. Church Festivals and Events February 2003 Saturday 8th, 10am – 3pm SCRUBLAND TASK DAY Join the rangers for a day of work in this vital, but often overlooked, habitat. Packed lunch required. Meet: Alexandra Lodge Saturday 15th & Sunday 16th, 10am – 3pm HEDGE LAYING WEEKEND Come and learn how to manage the hedgerow the traditional way. See for yourself the benefits this brings to the wildlife and how much fun you can have at the same time! Meet: Alexandra Lodge Saturday 22nd , 10am – 3pm BILLHOOKS AND BLOOMERS – WOMEN’S WOODLAND TASK DAY Girls, come and get yourselves dirty! This women-only task day, led by female rangers, will let you into the secrets of effective woodland management and tool use and, at the same time, be a lot of fun! Meet: Alexandra Lodge March 2003 Saturday 8th, 10am INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY Celebrate women and women’s health all around the world today! Join us for a guided walk to look at the countryside from a female perspective and help plant a tree to mark the occasion! Meet: Alexandra Lodge Saturday, 29th 10am – 1pm BESTWOOD’S BOUNDARY Join the rangers for a walk around the park and see the vast number of habitats that lie within its boundaries, as well as finding out about some of the fascinating history behind its management. Meet: Bestwood Lodge Drive Car Park For further information contact Beverley Stark on 0115 920 8879 ALL SAINTS, HUTHWAITE is celebrating its centenary 1903-2003 with a full programme of events, including a Centenary festival scheduled for May 15-18. This will include an exhibition in church of 100 years of All Saints Church and its life and work in the community, flower displays related to bible themes, a Children’s Activity Sheet, PowerPoint Quiz and Guided Tours, plus refreshments and lots more. Further details in the next Newsletter, but anyone offering help or wanting further information is asked to contact Charlie Maiden (01623 555053) by the end of January. The FOUR TONS UNITED BENEFICE (Fiskerton with Morton, Rolleston and Upton) is, for the third year running, producing their Holy Week pilgrimage of words and music ‘Christus Rex’. This staged in St. Peter and St. Paul’s, Upton near Newark, every evening of Holy Week (April 14-19), incorporating a foot washing service on Maundy Thursday. Everyone welcome to come any or each evening. Any enquiries to Sue Spencer 01636 830331 BABWORTH CHURCH, Retford (junction of A620 and B6420) is having a Snowdrop Weekend on Saturday 15th (10-4.30) and Sunday 16th (12.30-4.30) February. There will be a short talk on the Pilgrim Fathers each day at 3pm. Entry is free and refreshments are available. On Sunday 16th Evensong is held on the 16th at 6.30, further details from Bob Smith, 01777 703253/71007. ST. MARY’S in the Lacemarket is holding a candlelit concert in aid of the church restoration appeal, Saturday March 1st at 7.30pm. The adults and children’s choirs will present a programme of music including the Requiem by John Rutter, The Tyger by John Taverner and the Allegri Miserere. On Saturday April 12th at 7/30 pm the Orchestra of the Restoration will be performing the Passion of St. John (J S Bach) with the St Mary’s Concert. Further information from Andrew.abbott@nottingham.sema.slb.com St. MARY’S CLIFTON is holding a concert on March 1st, 7.30pm ‘An evening of Modern Classical Music’ presented by the Nottingham Symphonic Winds in aid of the Alzheimer’s Society, Nottingham Branch. Tickets £10, inclusive of refreshments. Information from Michele 0115 840 3830 Other events Thinking about co-ordinating the opening of your church with other local events (craft fairs, farmers markets)? If so, check the following website which gives details of what is happening http://www.visitnottingham.com Churches Festival 2002 Here at the Tourism Development Unit at West Lindsey District Council we are once again deep in the midst of putting together plans for the Churches Festival 2003. The annual open churches festival will be taking place on the 10/11 and 17/18 May 2003, and offers visitors the opportunity to view some of the magnificent churches hidden away within the district. Many of the churches will be hosting extra activities such as exhibitions, displays, craft/plant sales and refreshments – something to appeal to everybody! The success of previous festivals is going to be hard to top – but we are going to try! Tel 01427 615411 Email tourism.info@west-lindsey.gov.uk During 2002 the Diocesan Tourism Adviser carried out a survey of the extent to which Southwell Diocese churches are open to visitors. The objectives were twofold; firstly to obtain some hard data about visitor-related activities in our churches, and secondly to try and establish a list of parish contacts who would be available to provide on-going information and act as points of contact. The means chosen to get the information was via the Archdeacons’ Articles of Enquiry, which consists of an extended questionnaire sent annually to churchwardens. In 2002 three additional questions were incorporated: (a) Do you ever open your church for visitors? If so, at what times during the week, and what arrangements are made for keys and access? (b) Is your church ever used for festivals, concerts, exhibitions or events that attract visitors? If so, can you give some details? (c) Would your church be interested in developing or extending its ministry of welcome to visitors? If so, please give a contact name and address (preferably email). Of the 256 parishes in the Diocese, 250 completed Articles of Enquiry forms were available for study. Of these, 123 came from Nottingham Archdeaconry and 127 from Newark Archdeaconry. Not every respondent answered any of all the three tourism-related questions, nor did every parish produce a parish contact. However, the results (discussed below) include some surprises. 102 parishes now have a designated contact person (mostly lay people, often churchwardens), >60% of which are email users. All of the email addresses have been added to the circulation list for this Newsletter, and a circular letter plus printed copy will be sent to the non email users during the first half of 2003. Because of the restrictions imposed by the Data Protection Act it is not possible to publish the list of parish contacts, but names can always be obtained from me. At the end of this article there is a list of parishes that have visitor-friendly contact people- any amendments or corrections would be most welcome.
ArchDeaconry Nottingham Newark Total % answers ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- No.of returns Available 123 127 250 100 New parish contacts 45 31 102 41 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Church Opening Always open 25 18 43 18 In daylight hrs Keyholder Notice 44 41 85 34 Only on request 28 20 48 20 Regularly 1-2days/ 12 14 26 11 Week Never/unsuitable 19 21 40 16 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Concerts/Events Local/parish events 74 65 139 56 Music in Quiet Places 8 7 15 6 Regional 7 7 14 7 These results show the two archdeaconries to be very similar in pattern, with the Diocese as a whole having c. 18% of its churches always open during daylight hours. Although no formal tally was kept, the churches which were usually open were far more likely to be in rural areas. ‘Opening hours’ varied seasonally, but were usually given as dawn-dusk. >30% of churches were accessible only via a keyholder notice in the church, with 20% stating that they opened to visitors when/if a request was made. Inspection of church porch notices suggests that it is often far from clear to whom such a request should be addressed, and if the contact person is the vicar s/he may be unable to immediately open the church for a visitor. 11% of churches regularly opened one or two days per week, sometimes all day, sometimes half a day, sometimes just for a few hours, and this often coincided with church cleaning, coffee mornings or some other activity when people were in church and willing to welcome visitors. These opening times were not always advertised, even on notice boards, and many parishes clearly felt that visitors should be prepared to take pot luck. The most pro-active parishes have a simple signboard outside on such days saying ‘Church Open’, and often offer refreshments to visitors. 16% of parishes stated that they never opened for visitors, either because they felt the church was unsuitable or uninteresting, or because they had no-one available to staff the church, or because (as several said) they just have no interest in extending a ministry of welcome. A large percentage (56% of responses) of churches were used for local festivals (often flowers), concerts (local school or choir) or occasional parish events, but relatively few (12%) regularly staged events or concerts of regional significance whose attendance could be stimulated by marketing or advertising. The most frequently mentioned were Music in Quiet Places, and many churches noted that they regularly opened for the annual Church Bike Ride. These figures are much in line with data obtained from other Dioceses. It was heartening to note that an unexpectedly large percentage of churches were always opened, but depressing to see so many Key Notices many of which direct the visitor to the home of someone who is unlikely to be at home, or sometimes to the frail and elderly. The most recent edition of Ecclesiastical Insurance guidance notes states that ‘you must not give details of parishioners names and addresses where keys can be obtained’. It suggests that a shop, post office or garage should be used instead. One result of the survey is that we now have a named individual in 30% of our churches who is willing to provide information about church opening and events for wider circulation, and to respond to general enquiries (via the Diocesan Tourism Adviser). It is hoped that this will lead to sharing of good practice in welcoming visitors and better information for local authorities and organisations interested in church tourism. Please let me know what resources you require to enhance your church tourism activities – see the note at the end of this Newsletter.
Arnold St Mary Babworth Balderton Basford (both) Beckingham Beeston Bestwood (all) Bilborough St John Bingham Bleasby Blidworth Blyth Bothamsall Brinsley with Underwood Broughton Sulney Bulwell Car Colston Carlton in Lindrick Cinderhill Clayworth Clifton St Francis Clifton St Mary Clipstone Collingham Colston Bassett Colwick Cossall Darlton Daybrook Eakring East Bridgford East Markham Eastwood Eastwood Edwinstowe Elkesley Farndon Farnsfield Flintham Bingham Gamston Gedling Girton and Spatford Gunthorpe Hayton Holme Pierrepont Hucknall (all) Kelham Kimberley Kinoulton Kirkby in Ashfield Kirton Kneesall Ladybrook Langar and Barnstone Laxton Lenton Abbey Mansfield St Mark Markham Clinton Misterton Netherfields North Muskham North Wheatley Norwell Nottingham St Ann Nottingham St Mary Nottingham St Peter Nuthall Ordsall Ossington Plumtree Ranskill Ratcliffe on Trent Retford St Saviours Rolleston Scarrington Selston with Westwood Sherwood Shireoaks Sibthorpe Skegby South Leverton South Muskham South Scarle Southwell (both) Stanford on Soar Strelley Sutton on Trent Teversal Tollerton Trowell Tuxford Upton Warsop West Stockwith Weston Winthorpe Wollaton Park St Mary’s Woodborough Woodthorpe Worksop St John Is re-formatting itself into the Churches Tourism Organisation, a company limited by guarantee (charitable registration pending) in order to give legal weight to the work of the NCTG. Anyone can join, no fee to pay. Membership form from Rosemary Watts Church House Lincoln LN2 1PU. CHURCH TOURISM WEBSITE Have you seen the Church Tourism Website which can be accessed via the Main Menu on the Diocesan website at www.southwell.anglican.org ?. It is now time to change the Featured Church, currently St Peter’s, Clayworth. Would anyone like to nominate their church for this spot? It needs to be an attractive church that receives quite a lot of visitors, and preferably one with good photographs. Volunteer churches welcome, please. ‘WELCOME TO THE CHURCH’ course Our first ‘Welcome to the Church’ course was held at Kelham Hall on December 4th, sponsored by Newark and Sherwood District Council and free for everyone who lived within their boundaries. The trainer, John Winton, spent the day working with a group of clergy and lay people from a number of different parishes within our Diocese, exploring the issues involved in creating a welcoming environment for the church visitor. Feedback was very positive, although some people felt that the course was more suitable for first-timers in church tourism than for old hands. Many thanks to John Briggs and all at Newark and Sherwood for their support. What help would YOU like in developing your ministry of welcome to visitors? Training? Help with the production of information leaflets and brochures? Help in the development and promotion of festivals or events? Please let me know what you think is needed, and I’ll see what can be done. Your thoughts are most welcome, by email please to: dta@myrashackley.freeserve.co.uk Useful links |
