Churches Tourism Association

Locked or unlocked?

Contrary to some expectations, most Anglican churches are open to visit daily: around 3 out of 5 churches are unlocked, and only 1 in 4 are kept locked. Others are open at special times. The proof is here: the remarkable digiatlas.org now covers over 30 counties and has nearly 7000 churches listed, from Northumberland and Cumbria in the north to Cornwall and Kent in the south.

Each page contains a general comment on the locking situation in the county, an overview map, a pie chart, and one or more maps showing the churches and their status. The information provided here is not available anywhere else for most counties of England. The maps have proved popular with people interested in exploring churches.

The project is run by Cameron Newham, who has personally visited every site, taking photographs and recording whether the church is locked or unlocked. Whilst the information cannot be guaranteed 100% correct and may be liable to change, in practice the information has been found to be pretty accurate over time. Information provided by users of these maps has shown that they are reliable and most churches have remained unchanged over the 15 years that have elapsed since the first information was recorded.