WILTSHIRE people are being invited to have a fun day out and help preserve our beautiful Wiltshire Churches with this year’s Ride+Stride event on Saturday, 14 September.

Anyone can take part – there is no enrolment fee. You can walk, ride a bike, a horse or a mobility scooter, and the idea is to visit as many (or as few) churches as you like; you plan your own route. Last year over 350 people of all ages joined in and raised £62,000.

Any sponsorship money raised is divided between the participant’s chosen church or chapel and the Wiltshire Historic Churches Trust, which provides grants to churches for urgent repairs and enhancements. Most churches will be open, and many will have someone there to welcome visitors with refreshments. Anyone can take part and there is no enrolment fee.

The day will be officially launched at 10am at St Bartholomew’s Church, Corsham, by the Lord Lieutenant of Wiltshire, Mrs Sarah Troughton.

Among those taking part this year will be 8-year-old twins Robert and William Wallace who plan to emulate their hero Pheidippides (the first Marathon runner) by cycling 26 miles to churches around Salisbury.

The Rev Richard Curtis, Team Rector of the Cannings and Redhorn Team, who intends to do a run round all the churches in his Team having conducted a wedding earlier in the day. He will be visiting All Cannings, Bishop’s Cannings with Etchilhampton, Chirton with Patney, Marden, Urchfont with Stert, and Wilsford.

In the south of the county, Colonel Michael Elcomb, aged 98, will ride in elegant style on his mobility scooter from his home to St Mary's Church, Codford, He saw action during the Second World War in North Africa, where he was wounded, in Malta, Sicily and Germany.

To sponsor any of these, contact ctg100@hotmail.com. Toake part yourself, sponsorship forms, instructions and lists of churches can be downloaded from www.wiltshirehistoricchurchestrust.org.uk.