St Nicolas’ Church in Newbury took part in Ride+Stride for the first time in 2024, fielding over 80 participants on the day! Here are the ‘West Berks Parish Olympic Challenge’ routes they devised for their cyclists and walkers. These all start at St Nic’s but any church can become the start and finish point. There is a live link on each PDF to the ‘Ride with GPS’ website so you can load the route into your navigation device:
Ride Bronze – 5 churches, 16 miles
Ride Silver – 10 churches, 26 miles
Ride Gold – 25 churches, 63 miles
Ride Double Gold – 50 churches, 133 miles
Stride Bronze – 3 churches, 5.3 miles
Stride Silver – 4 churches, 9 miles
Stride Gold – 5 churches, 11.4 miles
Have a look at this promo video they made on the day and if you would like to find out more about how they did it, email rideandstrideberks@gmail.com and we can put you in touch.
Other routes devised by riders and striders include:
Churches of the Lambourn Valley – a 10 mile walk along the beautiful Lambourn Valley Way visiting seven historic churches
Newbury Church Walk – a 5 mile circular walk around the churches of Newbury, starting and finishing at St Mary’s, Shaw – a 10 mile walk along the beautiful Lambourn Valley Way visiting seven historic churches
Wokingham Town Walk – a gentle 2.5 mile walk round the churches in Wokingham town centre
West Downlands – 8 village churches in the beautiful landscape of the Berkshire Downs
Reading Town Walk – visit some or all of 14 Reading churches and chapels, compiled in 2017 but still just as good!
A Walk from Caversham to Tilehurst – taking in 15 churches in total
Binfield Cycle – an easy cycle route round Binfield, the Walthams, Shottesbrooke, Ruscombe,Twyford and Hurst, also compiled in 2017
Please let us know if you have a favourite walk or ride and we would be delighted to add it to the list. You might also like to let us know beforehand (the date for 2025 is Saturday 13th September) which churches you are hoping to visit and we will then let them know and encourage them to be open on the day to welcome you!