NEWS:
First Grants awarded in 2026! The total awarded was £62,485. Click HERE for details.
Our big fundraising day 2025 raised £212,020!!! Click HERE for full story,
Thank you to everyone who took part in the 2025 Suffolk Churches Ride and Stride and Pedal & Drive: cyclists, walkers, drivers, runners, volunteers sitting in churches and this year – horse riders too! And a HUGE thank you to all sponsors.
Click HERE for Ride and Stride photos and HERE for Pedal and Drive. For the first time, this year we had horse riders taking part too. They also had a photo competition. Click HERE
Latest Grants announced:
Seventeen grants, totalling £95,350, were awarded to Suffolk churches by the Suffolk Historic Churches Trust at their October Grants Committee Meeting.
The successful churches are in Bedfield, Bildeston, Blythburgh, Brampton, Butley, Copdock, Fornham St Martin, Herringfleet, Holbrook, Ipswich, Linstead Parva, North Cove, Rede, Saxtead, Spexhall, Tostock and Wenhaston.
Click HERE for more details.
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EXCITING NEWS: Our final anniversary year project in 2024 was to create Suffolk Churches Guides Online – a central resource point for church guides of all denominations and it is here, on this website!
To access the many church guides available so far (with more to come) CLICK HERE
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THE HISTORY OF THE SUFFOLK HISTORIC CHURCHES TRUST
Led by the inspiration and determination of the 11th Duke of Grafton and supported by the Hon. Jill Ganzoni, Norman Scarfe (one of Suffolk’s most eminent historians), and Alfred Williams of Haughley Park, the Trust was launched in December 1973.
Since then the Trust has raised and distributed the equivalent of ten million pounds (in today money) to help with the repair and maintenance of these churches. The Trust is non-denominational and all churches, chapels and meeting houses are eligible to apply for grants.
The Trust derives its income from membership of its Friends organisation, donations, grants and legacies and in particular from the annual sponsored Ride and Stride, held in September each year.
Suffolk’s Churches
The landscape of Suffolk would look very different without the 500 medieval churches the county can be so proud of. Then there is the role of non-conformist chapels and meeting houses in our history. Even non-worshipping members of communities appreciate that it is worth the time and money involved in preserving churches and chapels for future generations. (For more details of why Suffolk’s religious buildings are important to the local economy, click here)
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The next Suffolk Churches Ride and Stride, and Pedal & Drive will be held on Saturday 12th September 2026
The annual Sponsored Ride and Stride is a national event, and every second Saturday in September cyclists and walkers all round the country are out making money for their local county Churches Trust.
The idea started in Aldeburgh in Suffolk over 40 years ago, and consistently Suffolk has headed the table of funds raised. The Ride and Stride is the main source of income to Suffolk Historic Churches Trust to enable it to make grants to churches and chapels of all denominations towards repair and restoration costs.
Ride and Stride is run entirely by volunteers and is inter-denominational, with participants sponsored for each place of worship visited between 9.00am and 5.00pm on Ride and Stride Day or with a donation, regardless of the number of churches visited.
The money raised by each cyclist or walker is shared equally between the Suffolk Historic Churches Trust and the place of worship nominated by the participant.
As important as the participants are the many volunteers who give up the day to man the churches and chapels and sign in the cyclists and walkers as they arrive. Hundreds of places of worship are manned during the day and that takes quite a team of volunteers! It is a real community effort that is the lifeblood of the Trust.
In Suffolk we also hold a Pedal & Drive event on the same day, a car rally for vintage and classic cars. In 2025 a organised horse ride around churches also took place for the first time
