{"id":21144,"date":"2018-09-09T22:15:10","date_gmt":"2018-09-09T21:15:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/?p=21144"},"modified":"2018-09-09T22:15:10","modified_gmt":"2018-09-09T21:15:10","slug":"ride-and-stride","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/?p=21144","title":{"rendered":"Ride and Stride"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/imag18\/18090803.jpg\" alt=\"Ride and Stride\" \/><br \/>\nSince I no longer co-ordinate Heritage Open Days, and somebody else is already beginning to plan what happens in 2019, it was a chance to take part in Ride and Stride. This event ensures that a lot of churches in Oxfordshire are open to visitors on the same day &#8211; not a Sunday.<\/p>\n<p>Participants get sponsored and the money raised goes 50% to their chosen church, and 50% to maintain Oxfordshire Historic Churches.<\/p>\n<p>I began at my own church Trinity, Abingdon, where I got a very generous donation from the first two people manning the church.<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/imag18\/18090802.jpg\" alt=\"Ride and Stride\" \/><br \/>\nThen went to St Michael&#8217;s (pictured).<\/p>\n<p>Abingdon Baptist Church may be closed for building work but they still had people with refreshments.<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/imag18\/18090807.jpg\" alt=\"Ride and Stride\" \/><br \/>\nChurches offer drinks, and sustenance to people riding and striding round. All Saints had a good selection, including Jelly babies. <\/p>\n<p>The people at a table in the Eden Cafe at Peachcroft Church were very generous and added their names to my sponsor form. Thankyou to them.<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/imag18\/18090808.jpg\" alt=\"Ride and Stride\" \/><br \/>\nAfter an easy start with ten churches in Abingdon it was into new territory. Radley, and St James the Great&#8230;<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/imag18\/18090809.jpg\" alt=\"Ride and Stride\" \/><br \/>\nSt Swithuns at Kennington&#8230;<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/imag18\/18090810.jpg\" alt=\"Ride and Stride\" \/><br \/>\nSandford was expecting a visit from the Bishop of Oxford that afternoon, arriving by boat.<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/imag18\/18090811.jpg\" alt=\"Ride and Stride\" \/><br \/>\nWhen I got to Littlemore, the Bishop had already been and left his chalked 2018 tag.<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/imag18\/18090812.jpg\" alt=\"Ride and Stride\" \/><br \/>\nHe had been to many of the churches in Oxford on previous days, including the unspoilt church in Iffley with its&nbsp;romanesque arches and John Piper Window.<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/imag18\/18090814.jpg\" alt=\"Ride and Stride\" \/><br \/>\nMy ride took me down the Cowley Road, where I discovered Bartlemas Chapel (part of the former&nbsp;leper colony).&nbsp; 36 years ago I lived in Bartlemas Road and never knew that chapel existed.<\/p>\n<p>Then it was into the centre of Oxford where a lot of churches were very busy because it was also Open Doors day. Christ Church College and the Cathedral had a one way flow system. Once in I just had to go all the way round collecting a signature in the Cathedral.<\/p>\n<p>In the end I got round 37 churches and looked inside many I had been past but never looked inside before. I returned home up the Botley Road, and via Cumnor. It was a fascinating way to spend a day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Since I no longer co-ordinate Heritage Open Days, and somebody else is already beginning to plan what happens in 2019, it was a chance to take part in Ride and Stride. This event ensures that a lot of churches in Oxfordshire are open to visitors on the same day &#8211; not a Sunday. Participants get [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21144","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-church"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21144","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21144"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21144\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21144"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21144"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21144"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}