Out & About July 2017

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have trodden those historical steps
There is no heating in many of the churches,
but we would later discover a radiator kicking
out quite a lot of warmth, which made for a
very cosy night. We snuggled down, reading
by torchlight, until we all finally drifted off into a
very peaceful night’s sleep.
We woke up to the seven o’clock chimes of
the clock the next morning, with the sunlight
streaming down on us.
There are no showers, so you wouldn’t want
to be heading to a wedding or an important
business meeting after a night champing, but
we were just heading to breakfast and then
home so it just added to the excitement of the
adventure for the children.
Breakfast is provided at local pubs close to
the churches and so it was back down to The
Coach and Horses for a hearty feed before
packing up our sleeping bags, signing the
guest book and heading home.
Glancing down the list in the guest book gave
us a brief idea of the popularity of champing
already.
There had been people staying at St
Katherine’s for three out of the five nights
before us. It seems to be particularly popular
with American tourists.
Before being asked to write this feature I had
never heard of champing, but now I will be
looking at every old church and wondering
what memories are being made within those
ancient walls.
Champing facts:
• 350 CCT churches are still consecrated, but not
open for regular worship
• 12 churches are open for champing across
England and in Orkney
• 76 beds were bought for champing last
season,which were slept in by 656 people over
198 nights
• A fifth of 2016 champers had never camped
before
• 650 breakfasts were served to champers last
year
• 40 per cent of champers were couples
• 23 dogs enjoyed champing last year
• A fifth of champers were groups of eight or more
people
• 10 per cent of bookings were from overseas
• More than 300 bottles of wine were drunk by
champers last year
• Champing has just won the Hudson’s Heritage
Special Judges Award for Best Accommodation
Find out more about champing at
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Lucy’s Champing diary:
“I thought Champing was fun because
you got to go up and see the clock
bells and there were two parts to the
church, an upstairs and a downstairs.
Upstairs was very nice to sit down at
night and play games. Then after a
while you go to bed and sleep in a very
comfy camp bed downstairs. It was nice
because there was also hot chocolate,
drinks and glasses there for us too. I
would recommend Champing.”
Hannah’s Champing diary:
“I was a bit scared at first and then
when I knew the secrets, like they hid
hot chocolates in the cupboard and
that you could go up and see the bell
ring, then it was more fun and I liked
it more and more and more. I think
you should go Champing
yourself because it’s a very nice
family thing to do.”
If you’re a little apprehensive at the thought of spending the night
in a church, James Allen suggests some spiritual tipples to calm
the nerves p37