Camping in a church? We're a believer
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Juliet Turner Catherine Fitzgerald Virginia Clark Non Morris Madeleine Silver Christabel Chubb Condé Nast
Camping in a church? We're a believer. Juliet Turner takes a leap of faith to stay in a room with a pew - and finds out why 'champing' holidays are the latest travel trend.
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House & Garden
Labelled the next big holiday trend, church camping or 'champing' gives you the chance to stay overnight in one of England's historic churches. Juliet Turner, sleeping bag in hand took the leap of faith

'Enjoy your stay', says the beaming landlord of the Fordwich Arms handing me a huge cast iron key over the bar. But I am not staying at his cosy red-brick pub. This heavy relic unlocks the door to the disused church next door, which will be my lodging for the night.

I am on a church camping break, or 'champing' for those who cannot resist a new compound; a two-day discovery tour of country walks, waterways, village pubs and history, culminating in a candle-lit night within the peaceful walls of one of England's treasured country churches. If yurts and tipis have left you yearning for something more weathertight and vernacular, then champing may be the answer to your prayers.

This unusual B&B experience is run by the Churches Conservation Trust who, with 345 historic churches across the England to care for, had the divine idea to hire out a select few to holiday-makers to help raise funds to keep the buildings open and in good repair.

Set on the banks of the River Stour, a short meander downstream from Canterbury, St Mary the Virgin in Fordwich, Kent, has been a place of worship for more than nine centuries. Now retired, her dwindling congregation taken over by a neighbouring parish, the quaint Norman church is well located to welcome campers seeking an escape from the push-button trappings of modern life.

The pretty hamlet she once served (officially England's smallest town, for trivia lovers) has two excellent pubs and an array of listed buildings, including a splendid sixteenth-century timberframe town hall, which is still in use. And just beyond the shaded churchyard walkers can pick up the Stour Valley trail to Canterbury, or take a canoe or boat trip through the nearby nature reserve.

Pushing open the heavy medieval door, we find a building still furnished as a working church; hymn books neatly aligned by the entrance, the altar draped in white cloth.

It feels odd being its keyholder. I almost expect parishoners to start arriving for mass, but aside from a couple of special ceremonies a year, the church has seen no regular worship since 1995. A discarded service sheet for a World War One memorial lies on a pew, the only immediate evidence of its recent occupation.

The church is a fascinating medley of centuries of workmanship. There are medieval windows, a seventeenth-century wall painting and the mysterious 'Fordwich Stone', an intricately carved stone 'tomb', believed to be a Norman shrine to St Augustine, who likely passed through Fordwich on his way to becoming the first Archbishop of Canterbury.

But it is the rows of family box pews which are this church's defining feature - and are to provide our 'room' for the night. Upon closer inspection, the largest has been laid out with a camp bed. Lanterns have been placed on the benches and it all looks rather cosy, if somewhat incongruous.

After a three-course dinner at the George and Dragon, another of Fordwich's excellent pubs and one-time filming location for wartime film A Canterbury Tale, we head back through the twilight to St Mary's, ready to try out our 'champ' bed.

The church has electricity, but we light the pillar candles in the windows instead - the champer's substitute for a campfire.

My 'room with a pew' is surprisingly comfortable, its wooden walls like a nest within this cavernous space. As I lie cocooned in the belly of this monument to 900 years of human history, watching the flickering light play on the vaulted ceiling, does it feel spooky? Surprisingly no. Just very peaceful. My gaze comes to rest on the seventeenth-century painting of the Ten Commandments above the nave. An improvement on wet canvas hanging limply above my face, I think, drifting off to the sound of rain pattering on the roof.

I wake from deep sleep to sunlight streaming through the stained glass windows. After a night without electronic gadgets or artificial lights, silent only for the natural sounds of the countryside I feel rested as I haven't in years. It is cold, but the promise of a cooked breakfast lures me from my sleeping bag and into the oak-pannelled dining room of the Fordwich Arms, where we are met with a full English fry-up - and questions from our curious server about 'our night in the church'.

Bedding down in places of worship may seem a novel idea, and one that can arise strong passions, but Philip Lewis, chief custodian of St Mary's tells me it is an activity that has a longer history than many think.

'As well as religious services, the church would have been used to hold civic meetings and for hospitality,' he said. 'In medieval times, pilgrims would have alighted here in Fordwich on their way to Canterbury Cathedral, and they would likely have slept overnight in the church.'

And so feeling like latter day pilgrims, we set off on the three-mile walk into Canterbury, our stomachs content and our minds rested, new converts to champing.

Ways and meansChamping adventures in 2015 cost £60 per person per night, including breakfast. St Mary the Virgin in Fordwich, Kent, is one of currently three churches where guests can stay overnight, with champing also available at St Cyriac and St Julitta in Swaffham Prior near Cambridge and All Saints in Aldwincle, Northamptonshire. Alongside the standard 'bed and breakfast' champing break, The Churches Conservation Trust can arrange activities to complement stays, including guided walks, canoeing excursions, boat trips, storytelling and yoga. For more information, go to visitchurches.org.uk/champing or email Chana champing@thecct.org.uk.https://www.visitchurches.org.uk/what-we-do/news/champing-2018-is-now-open-for-bookings-.html

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