This website is currently being updated with church details for 2024. In the meantime we invite you to browse the 2024 brochure online at this link.

Brochure 2024 Lincolnshire Wolds & Coast Churches Festival

Belchford, St Peter & St Paul (photo Push Creativity)

Welcome to the Lincolnshire Wolds & Coast Churches 2024 Festival. And what a terrific party we have in store for you with over 100 churches and chapels opening their doors over the first two weekends in September to offer a warm welcome.

There is something for everyone… rich architecture and heritage, beautiful tranquillity, vibrant exhibitions and music… as well as a welcoming oasis of peace.

Numerous exciting activities are being staged to whet your appetites, from flower and art displays to exhibitions and guided tours.

Alternatively, if all you want is a bit of time to yourself, to relax in the quiet of a beautiful spiritual building, then make sure you choose one of the self-nominated ‘quiet’ churches.

And finally, many churches will have refreshments available to help nourish you on your visits, varying from tea, coffee and biscuits to local Lincolnshire treats.

Once again, we thank you for your support of our church heritage.

And this support will help ensure the lovely community support that binds these rural Lincolnshire villages together stays forever. So, please do enjoy this fifth Lincolnshire Wolds and Coast Festival

Week 1 - 7th & 8th September

Horncastle St Mary (Photo Push Creativity for the National Churches Trust)

Horncastle and villages

Our churches are treasure troves waiting to be explored. Lift the latch, open the door and enter a thousand years of history contained in medieval stained glass, Norman architecture and Victorian monuments and sculptures.

Horncastle St Mary’s invites you to uncover the mystery of the scythes, displayed above the entrance to the Lady Chapel; were they brutal weapons used in the English Civil War? Come and find out… Or travel nearby to St Andrew’s at Ashby Peurorum, home to one of the biggest pre-13th century bells in the country.

Venture in the south Wolds to All Saints, Hameringham, another casualty of the Civil War. Various marks on the walls are attributed to sword sharpening and musket fire dating from the Battle of Winceby fought in fields nearby.

Wherever you go, you will find much to enjoy and appreciate. . .

Spilsby and villages

Raithby, near Spilsby, has to be one of the most fascinating methodist chapels in Lincolnshire. And as this county is the birthplace of the Methodist movement it is not surprising that John Wesley visited this humble chapel set above the stables of Raithby Hall. In contrast, St James, Spilsby is overflowing with monuments and memorabilia, including a memorial to Sir John Franklin (1786-1847), remembered most for his attempts to find the North West Passage linking the Atlantic and the Pacific oceans. The Willoughby chapel is a place to remember generations of the Willoughby family.

This is probably the finest collection of medieval monuments in Lincolnshire. Venture south and experience the small mission church of St Jude, New Leake; an oblong red brick building with a bell turret, built and opened around 1896. Small and unassuming, the church is a lovely reminder of life in the Lincolnshire Fens. Joining the festival this year is The Church of Our Lady and The English Martyrs at Spilsby, set in gardens and allotments.

Week 2 - 14th & 15th September 2023

Raitby, St Peter (Photo Push Creativity)

Louth and villages

Soaring spires and leaning towers, thatched roofs and carved Tudor bench ends – there is much to discover in Louth and its Wolds villages. Visit Raithby St Peter and listen to the gentle tones of the splendid barrel organ, the last one in working order to be found in a Lincolnshire church.

In contrast, step inside Louth St James and revel in the majesty of this great achievement of medieval architecture. Or head onto the Wolds to take a tour of Binbrook Church, with its RAF heritage. A large church for such a village, it is known as ‘The Cathedral in the Wolds’.

Alford and villages

There are monuments hatchments, carvings and fabulous architecture in abundance in our marshland’s churches, spanning the vast area between Wolds and Coast. Visit Alford and immerse yourself in the Pocohontas story and discover for yourself who John Smith, Governor of Virginia, United States really was. St Peter’s at Markby is the only thatched roof church in the county. Built from the remains of Markby priory and unspoilt through time, this church really is a Lincolnshire gem.

Huttoft St Margaret of Antioch is a treasure chest waiting to be opened. With additions to the building being added every century since the 1200s, every architectural period is covered. Marvel at the font with its wonderful carvings of the saints and wooden canopy, spot the old funeral byre, the barrel organ, parish chest and the Great Chair.

Or take a tour of St Clements at Sutton-on-Sea with its unusual leaning tower. The church suffered dramatically in the 1953 floods that engulfed the East Coast and a plaque inside marks the height of the flood waters. Our marshland and coastal churches have weathered many storms and as a result have so much history to uncover and enjoy . . .

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