2018: The Year of Northamptonshire Churches is organised by The Northamptonshire Britain’s Best Surprise campaign, an initiative launched in 2017 to promote the county’s significant tourism offering and to strengthen the local visitor economy and communities.
The Year will create a lasting legacy in the form of a websitewww.northamptonshiresurprise.com containing an online treasury of beautifully written descriptions for 100 churches, visitor information, details of worship and services, and it is hoped that more volunteers will be recruited to help care for the county’s churches over the longer term.
Allchurches Trust [Alliance member], one of the UK’s largest grant-making trusts, is a principal funder of 2018: The Year of Northamptonshire Churches. Allchurches’ Chairman, Sir Philip Mawer, said: “We salute this project for bringing so many different sectors of Northamptonshire life together to promote the county’s churches. Civic and religious leaders, art historians, tourism experts and local communities: all these people know how special these churches are. We’re glad to be helping them open their doors to the wider world.”