Ride + Stride Welcome
Ride + Stride 2025 Saturday 13th September (Updated 7 Nov)
Ride + Stride for Dorset churches took place as usual on the second Saturday in September. Just Giving and Bank Transfer totals now exceed £100,000 so it looks as though 2025 will be another bumper year.
Canon Andrew Rowland, Vicar of Wimborne and DHCT Trustee, welcomed riders to the Minster.
The customary large team assembled at Sturminster Marshall with high hopes of a least equalling their Morshead-winning sponsorship total in 2024.
Two supporters, with a beautifully turned-out pony and carriage, move away from Winterborne Clenston
Revd Lydia Reese and the Team from the Lulworths prepared to set off from St Christopher, Winfrith
3 striders from over the border with Somerset braved the steep hills around Batcombe (Photgrapher's note - they did have feet but the image compression cut them off!)
Canon Richard Bartlett, Vicar of Wool and Rural Dean of Purbeck, prepared to leave the Rectory with two members of his family. His son soon left his father behind in his quest to visit every church in the Purbeck Deanery.
Members of the congregation at Affpuddle offered welcome drinks and biscuits outside their beautiful church.
Ride + Stride for Dorset churches 2025 took place on Saturday 13 September. Here is how it was arranged.
For participants: R+S is organised at individual church level by our corps of Church Representatives (formerly Parish Organisers). If you are keen to take part or learn more about the event, please contact your Church Rep. To get you going, please open the guide to participants here We encourage you to raise sponsorship through JustGiving using the Trust’s campaign page for 2025 rather than your own page. It makes it so much easier for our book-keeping team to track the sponsorship and attribute it to the correct church. We ask everyone collecting sponsorship to create a log-in name as follows: villagechurchnameinitialschurchserial (all one word). Pledges can also be recorded on our Sponsorship form here for those who prefer to give cash or a cheque.
We used to publish a printable list of participating churches, indicating that they would be open on the day to help riders plan their routes. However we could not be confident that it would be accurate and we wanted to avoid misleading our riders. Although we cannot recommend any particular route, later in the summer we will suggest some areas in the County that have been popular with riders in recent years. On the day, our riders will take the Record of Visits form here with them to have it signed off at each church.
For Church Representatives (formerly Parish Organisers): if your church took part last year, you will receive a pack of all the papers that you will need to set up R+S participation in September. The letter to Church Reps is here All the papers are: the key document is the letter to Riders + Striders here It includes a poster here with contact details to display from mid-June so that those intending or thinking of taking part know that it will be happening. Participants are encouraged to team up in twos and threes or whole families to share the fun of a great day out in Dorset’s countryside. As the big day approaches, local publicity can be refreshed with some small posters here which echoed the big roadside boards which DARs put up in late August. The Register of Visitors to churches here and an Apology notice here complete the pack, along with a handout for potential participants here. A draft Press Release to include in your Parish News is here Once the big day is over, CRs will gather in the cash and cheques and then fill in the Financial Management form here and Remittance form here These must be submitted, in one remittance, to our Treasurer by not later than 30 Oct 24. The sooner the sponsorship is sent in, the sooner churches will receive their 50% back!
Thank youRide + Stride results for 2024 and rebate to churches
R+S 2024 has topped £104,500 - a huge achievement for which the Trust is extremely grateful. Of that sum, the Trust returned £45,700 to churches in the form of the 50% rebate for taking part.
The key point is that a significant part of the total income from R+S is the Gift Aid recovery. This year that amounted to £9,300 - it could have been even more had everyone eligible to tick the Gift Aid box done so. We urge all participants to make the Gift Aid declaration, if they can, either on JustGiving or on the sponsorship form.
Apology - we must apologise to 16 churches which took part in R+S 2024 and whose sponsorship total was omitted from the Annual Report & Review. Somehow, a section of the spreadsheet containing the results for the 150 participating churches was lost on its way to the printers and this was not noticed in the proof-reading. By way of recompense, each church has been sent a letter from the Chairman of the Trust and we are pleased to publish their results below:
Bradford Peverell, St Mary £90.00
Sydling St Nicholas, St Nicholas £215.00
Winterborne Steepleton, St Michael £450.00
West Stafford, St Andrew £180.00
Broadmayne, St Martin £480.00
West Knighton, St Peter £320.00
Owermoigne, St Michael £435.00
Warmwell, Holy Trinity £775.00
Cerne Abbas, St Mary £330.00
Askerwell, St Michael £350.00
Loders, St Mary Magdalene £225.00
Beaminster, St Mary of the Annunciation £1010.00
South Perrott, St Mary £60.00
Stoke Abbott, St Mary £755.00
Toller Porcorum, St Peter and St Andrew £205.00
Broadwindsor, St John the Baptist £280.00