MY STORY

Firstly, for those who are not familiar with the term; what is a churchcrawler? Well, this is someone who visits lots of churches, to photograph them, to enjoy the history of them, and for many to enjoy the peace and calm inside these lovely buildings.

Some churchcrawler are also Christian, but many will just visit these churches as historic buildings rather than simply houses of God.

I first started off this hobby back in 2006, as an aid to help fight depression. I had been with my father through a very long fight with illness. After his death, I was struggling with life in general. A friend suggested that it might be an idea to take long walks just to give me something to do and somewhere to go. I did, and on one Friday afternoon in September 2006 I ended up at the church of St Kyneburgha, Castor, near to Peterborough. A few days previous to that, I had been with a friend in the Cotswolds, looking around a few churches after a football match; I needed peace in my life and these churches provided some!

The church at Castor was open and I went inside; just sitting and enjoying the near silence; just a solitary bird singing away in the distance. I enjoyed the experience very much and decided to buy a cycle, and travel to churches within a ten miles circle of Peterborough. Well, the ten miles soon became twenty and the circle became a dodecahedron and suddenly things were out of control.

This hobby has become an important part of my life. I came to faith during the course of my travels; and I now travel to enjoy the churches both architecturally and spiritually. Travelling also still helps me mentally; somewhere to go, something to see; which has been of particular benefit this year when life has been so challenging.

I have set up a couple of websites over the years, detailing some of the churches that I have visited. The idea for this website, travelling where possible during the pandemic seems a logical thing for me to do. I hope that you find it of interest.

Thanking you again for your interest.

Very best wishes

Robin Peel,

Peterborough

July 2021.