Congregations are working hard in Cumbria to make their assets attractive and welcoming to tourists, visitors and pilgrims alike. Small and low cost changes can make big improvements. Below are examples locally and nationally of good practice in visitor welcome, interpretation and marketing faith sites to new people.

Faith trails

Railways and Religion Faith Trail- Western Dales
A group of mainly non-conformist churches in the western dales (east of Cumbria) with support from CTfC produced a trail of a dozen small and serene chapels, churches and meeting houses whose history is linked to that of the railways. Many of these chapels are now open to the public for the first time.  See the leaflet here.

Sacred Solway Faith Trail
This informative 'trail' between 10 churches from Burgh-by-Sands to Holme Cultram Abbey in the north of the County can be found here. For the background on how the faith trail was put together, designed and paid for see the Solway Report.

Small improvements and security

One of the churches, Burgh-by-Sands undertook some tiny changes which saw resulted in a big difference- just by installing a new piece of furniture.

St Thomas, Crosscrake has installed a timed, magnetic entry system which enables the church to be opened and closed without the need for a visit from a volunteer.

The Borrowdale Project uses the 3 valley churches to share the story of Borrowdale with locals and tourists alike. Their newsletter tells their story.

Examples of welcoming websites
Some local churches whose websites are particularly welcoming to visitors include Hawkshead Hill Baptist Church, St Martin’s Brampton, and Kirkby Lonsdale Parish.

Examples of good practice elsewhere in the country

St Peter’s Wootton Wawen in Warwickshire have set up an excellent visitor exhibition, ‘the Saxon Sanctuary’