Tag: Sponsored Ride

Spend your day riding through stunning parkland

Riders of all abilities are being invited to take part in a charity event in the grounds of Grimsthorpe Castle near Bourne for the Bythams fun carriage drive (Sunday) and sponsored ride (Monday).

A rare opportunity to spend your day riding through stunning private parkland, with no traffic around to spoil the serenity, is being offered by both events.

Read more from the Lincolnshire Echo website.

Sponsored Ride in Grimsthorpe Park 2011

Bank Holiday Monday (2 May 2011) sees the annual ‘Sponsored Ride’ taking place in theBythams area.  If you ride, the event, in its 9th year since it changed from being the ‘Hunter Trials’, is one not to miss.  The organisers have laid out 8, 12 and 15 mile courses in beautiful Grimsthorpe Park (all off public roads) and offer tea and cake, as well as toilets, at the mid-point!  In previous years partipants have remarked how enjoyable the event is and leave with a promise to return next year which over 200 did in 2009. Proceeds from the event go towards the maintenance of the churches in Careby, Creeton, Castle Bytham and Little Bytham and this years chosen ‘external’ charity – Kesteven Rideability based at Hough-on-the-Hill, near grantham, a Riding for the Disabled member.  If you’d like to take part it not too late to enter, contact Rosemary Player on 01778 590350. For further information see … www.bccride.com

Bythams Sponsored Ride 2003

From the pages of the Glenside News (June 2003)…

On 4th may, in glorious sunshine, the first Sponsored Ride in support of our Parishes and Homestart took place in Grimsthorpe Park by kind permission of Grimsthorpe Estates.

Thanks to the welcome rain at the end of April, the going was excellent and 106 riders turned out to enjoy a ride of 8, 12 or 15 miles through seldom-seen countryside completely off the public roads. Many, having opted for the 8 mile course, changed their minds at the 6 mile Rest Stop and went on to enjoy a longer ride fortified by a drink and a selection of excellent cakes kindly donated by the Womens Institute.

Of course, this was not the Hunter Trials of former years and although the Committee members were sad to cancel that event, all are agreed that the decision was correct. Sponsored Rides can be organised and run by a minimum of volunteers (although more are always welcome) as opposed to the labour intensive Hunter Trials, now full of legal traps for the unwary. And of course, the removal of the compeititve element allows everyone to relax.

Without exception, every rider commented on how enjoyable the day had been and as the horseboxes streamed out of Grimsthorpe at 4 o’clock, there was much hand waving and shouts of “Great Day! Whens the next one?”

So, a success in its first year.

Farewell to the Hunter Trials?

It is unfortunate that one of the first articles or pieces of information about the Hunter Trials we have included on theBythams website has to be rather sad news.

From the pages of the Glenside News (April 2003)…

The advertisement for help with the Hunter Trials in last months Glenside News should have started alarm bells ringing somewhere in our community. Plainly it didn’t and the end result could be our loss.

That the Committee has decided in the face of rising costs. faltering enthusiasm and dwindling support, they can no longer run the Trials in the way in which they have been run should not surprise us. The stringent enforcement of Health and Safety rules together with the changes in professional cover do nothing to aid a small event run on an entirely voluntary basis.

For the last 20 years, the Bythams with Creeton and Careby Hunter Trials have been the largest annual fund raising event in our Parishes, providing much needed capital for our Parochial Church Councils and local charities. That help is needed more than ever, a fact recognised only too well by the Hunter Trials Committee, and we understand that they plan to hold en event that is less manpower intensive and less onerous in its execution.

This is to be a Sponsored Ride that will take place on the same day, 4th May 2003, and at the same location, Grimsthorpe Estate. Plainly, receipts will not be as high as in earlier years but we all could and should provide our support to ensure that some sort of event continues to run in furture years.