The Lincolnshire Wolds & Coast Churches Festival 2026
Once again, our doors will be open as we welcome you on this weekend of a celebration of The Lincolnshire Wolds & Coast Churches.
The Church will be open on Saturday 5th 10:00am to 4:00pm & Sunday 6th September 1:00 to 4:00pm.
We will be holding a Eucharist service on Sunday 6th September at 11:15, and everyone is very welcome to join us.
The 2026 brochure is now available to view on the Lincolnshire Wolds & Coast festival webpage.
This will be our 7th year of taking part in the festival, and it’s a wonderful opportunity for visitors to more fully engage with our churches. A lot of churches are open most, if not all days during the week anyway, but it is unlikely visitors would find anyone there to chat to or answer any questions they might have.
One of the wonderful things about the Wolds & Coast festival is that someone should be present to be able to answer their questions, identify specific things they may wish to look at, know about, and such like. There are certain items of interest that can only be made available when volunteers are present, such as the historic Burial, Marriage and baptism registers, which we will have available to visitors, but these are usually locked away for safe keeping. Family history is still high on people’s reasons for visiting parish churches. We also hold a record of all the legible headstone inscriptions in the churchyard, which helps people to locate the actual graves of their relatives.
People have lots of different reasons for visiting churches and tend to plan their route around their interests. It could be the architecture, the stonework, memorials, carvings, or just the peace and tranquility.
Some visitors spend a lot of time in the church, others come in, find their particular item of interest, take a photograph, and off they go to the next church on their route that has similar appeal.
For example, here at St Andrews we have a stone effigy of a knight in armour, probably from the 14th century. This was said to have been found under the floor of the church during later restoration work, one theory being that it may have been buried to protect it during the dissolution of the monasteries in the 1500’s.
In the Willoughby chapel at St James’s church in Spilsby – just 1½miles to the west of Halton Holegate- there are many medieval and Tudor tombs, effigies, and monuments dedicated to the Willoughby de Eresby family, and in Little Steeping church – 2 miles to the east of us – they have a 14th-century recumbent stone effigy of Thomas de Redyng who was Rector of the parish from 1318 to 1353 and is considered to be the builder of the church. So, lots to see within just a few miles of each other.
Visitors sometimes plan their route to visit churches to play the organ, which again would not be possible during regular open days. Last year at Halton Holegate we had people queuing up for their turn to play. We were hoping to have the organ available again this year, but as with ourselves, our lawns and gardens, the organ has also suffered from the excessive heat. It has gone out of tune and some of the keys are sticking, so sadly, we are unable to have it playable again until after the festival weekend. However, St James church in Spilsby have their William Hill organ available, Holy Trinity church in Hagworthingham has a playable organ, as do St Peter & St Paul church in Old Bolingbroke, who have recently had their organ fully refurbished. Old Bolingbroke also has an organist & harp recital between 2 o’clock and 3.30 on Saturday and Sunday 5th & 6th. Everyone will be made very welcome there, and there is no charge, just pop in, take a pew, and enjoy.
As part of an earlier National Lottery funded project, we researched the names on our War Memorial tablet, and produced interpretive boards, with details of ‘who they were, where they lived, where they went to school, what they did for a living, their families that were left behind’– they are no longer just anonymous names on a carved piece of stone, and these are on display in the church.
All of our pew ends have fascinating poppy head carvings, some dating back to the 15th century, with others being of the Victorian era. A lot of the Victorian ones depict all things ‘countryside or farming’, family crests, monarchs, and so on, but some of the earlier carvings tend to be a bit cheekier in nature, a hare with a tortoise on its back, a group of monkeys, mythical creatures, and some very stylised heads and faces, almost akin to gargoyles.
We will have the Halton Holegate scrapbook available for people to see. This was put together in 1905 by Rev Disbrowe, who was Rector here at the time. It is a combination of village and church history, with the earliest documented details from the 1500s. It was added to, following the death of Revd Disbrowe, and records events up to the 1980’s. It’s a fascinating record of the life of the village, the church and its people.
Other churches in the area have lots of different things to see and do, such as, St Marys church in Hundleby has a flower festival and a harvest service in church on Sunday 6th at 3pm, again, all welcome.
Many churches are offering tea and cake, but if you are fancying something a little more substantial then St Helens church at East Keal, just 2 miles south of Spilsby, are offering a ploughman’s lunch and, I quote, “delicious homemade puddings and cakes”.
The festival has its own website :
lincswoldsandcoastchurches.org
On the website there is a brochure available to download, showing all the participating churches, their location, what they are offering during the weekend, and their opening times. This year the festival organisers are also offering to post out brochures, subject to availability, the information for that is on the website.
It’s not just people from Lincolnshire who visit our churches, they’re from far and wide.
I understand that brochures have been posted out from Devon to Northumberland and places in between , even a request from Ontario Canada, who have Ancestry links to the county.
Some churches you visit may also still have some brochures to pick up, especially if it is on the first weekend, so you can have a copy for the following weekend to plan your next round of visits to the wonderful historic churches, and hospitality that this beautiful county of Lincolnshire has to offer.
We are passionate about our churches and just want to throw open the doors and share that passion with whoever comes through.
CHANGES TO THE 2026 BROCHURE
In our listing for the Wolds & Coast Festival 2026 we advertise that the church organ is available to play. However, due to the hot weather it has gone a little out of tune, and some of the keys are sticking. Our organ man is not able to get to us until after the event, so sadly our organ will not be playable on the weekend of 5th & 6th September.
If anyone would like to visit us at another time to play, once the organ is playable, please contact us and we will be more than welcome to arrange this for you.
Light refreshments will be served on both days.
To find us: Postcode PE23 5PA ///eventful.rivals.waltzes
St Andrew's Church Halton Holegate 