Lincolnshire Wolds & Coast Festival

In 2019 the beautiful churches in the wolds and along the coast of Lincolnshire got a boost thanks to the National Churches Trust.

With a £7,700 grant, funded by the generous donations of National Lottery Players as well as funding and support from Lincolnshire County Council, Visit Lincs Coast and East Lindsey District Council.

The project created and promoted a new churches festival for the Wolds & Coast area of Lincolnshire with over 100 churches opening their doors during the weekends of 31st August & 1st September and 7th & 8th September 2019.

Festival achievements

In many Lincolnshire Wolds villages the church is the focal point, being the only communal building and usually the oldest. Many are mini museums, holding the stories, treasures and social histories of these communities. Small teams of volunteers care and open up these churches but many do not have the skills or power to attract visitors. The project aimed to bring church teams together and combine efforts to raise the profile of the churches in this area by developing and widely promoting a new festival.

The project:

: engaged 861 volunteers to take part in the festival

: welcomed 9000 church visits during the festival

: produced 100 new explorer packs and 1500 treasure hunt spotter books for families

: trained 94 volunteers in welcoming visitors, keeping churches open, social media, opening up churchyards, telling stories and social history

: created 11,000 church directories listing all the churches in the district, to be distributed
over three years

: welcomes 50 school children into churches to trial treasure hunt spotter books

: opened 140 churches during the 4 day festival over 2 weekends

: delivered a festival conference including training to 72 people

: produced and distributed 12,000 flyers, 1000 posters, 10,000 guidebooks to promote the festival

To read the full independent evaluation of the project, click here