Ride + Stride

Help save Yorkshire’s churches with your weekend walk or bike ride. Visit unique historic buildings, see beautiful countryside, get some exercise and have fun with the family! 

Ride+Stride for churches is a sponsored bike ride or walk between churches, exploring and enjoying the towns and countryside of Yorkshire. The money raised helps to repair churches, chapels and meeting houses throughout Yorkshire.

Supported by The National Churches Trust and run by county churches Trusts nationwide, Ride+Stride for Churches opens the doors to some of England’s amazing church buildings.

Save the date: Ride + Stride will take place on Saturday 14 September 2024 , alongside Yorkshire Churches Day, and we’d love to see as many of you as you can take part.

Some churches and people hold a fundraising event to raise money for the YHCT rather than travel between churches. Please do consider this if you can’t take part traditionally.

Sponsorship forms and a guide for participants can be found here:

Saint Aelred’s Pilgrim Trail.

New for 2024, plans are being made to map out a route to link together all nine historic churches in the Benefice of Helmsley and Upper Ryedale. The route will be named the Saint Aelred’s Pilgrim Trail, in homage to him and his tenure as Abbot of Rievaulx  (1147 – 1167), his love of walking, history, friendship, and his prolific writing.

This will link the five historic rural churches on the Upper Ryedale Parish Trail with the handsome and historic Church of All Saints, Helmsley and the 19th century Methodist Church, together with the historic hamlet churches of Saint Mary Magdalene, East Moors, the “slipper chapel” of the Abbey: the Church of Saint Mary the Virgin, Rievaulx, the stunning Rievaulx Abbey, and the restored Elizabethan building of the Church of Saint Chad, Sproxton.

Click the link below for further details:

http://www.saintaelredspilgrimtrail.com/

https://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/heritage-and-retro/heritage/st-aelreds-pilgrim-trail-new-41-mile-walking-trail-that-covers-the-history-of-the-north-york-moors-launches-4580654

News from 2023


You can donate via our People’s Fundraising site:

How it Works – For Ride + Striders

Download a sponsorship form on which you can indicate the church that you’d like to receive half of the money you raise. Plan your route!

How it Works – For Parishes

If you’d like to take part then please contact generalenquiries@yhct.org and we will list your church on our website.

If you are able to to open up, there are no set hours, we appreciate whatever you can manage.

If at all possible, make sure there is someone on hand to welcome visitors. Some visitors may only stop by briefly, but some will want to look around.

If you can lay on refreshments and organise events (say, a guided tour) then so much the better.

There’s no need to restrict your welcome to Ride+Stride participants and it’s a great opportunity for outreach and raising the profile of your church!

Visit the National Ride & Stride Website here https://ridestride.org/