Country Parish

BBC Radio Stoke's year-long faith series 'A Country Parish' has been honoured at The Annual Christian Broadcasting Council Media Awards.
The year long radio diary about life in a Staffordshire parish – St Peter’s at Alton followed the lives of churchgoers in the village in the Staffordshire Moorlands.

Starting at Easter 2008, the project followed the villagers through the year – including their preparations for the Summer Fete, the school holiday club and the Harvest Festival.
It also examined how the parish reacted to the coach crash in the village in August which made national headlines, and the last ride of the Alton Towers corkscrew rollercoaster.

The series won a highly commended in the Best Website Audio category of the Christian Broadcasting Council’s 2008 Media Awards staged in Manchester this month. They were presented by the Bishop of Liverpool, James Jones.

Series producer Mary Fox was awarded a 'Highly Commended' for the radio and web-based project which was set in the village of Alton in Staffordshire.
Mary Fox lives in the village and is a member of the church.

Pleasant surprises

The judges commented: "It certainly shows another side to Alton away from the rollercoasters and scary rides. Aptly shows the challenge of rural Anglican parish life in audio, images and web copy. It’s a pretty long-term and ambitious project.

"Good production – bells mixed under the churchwarden etc. Stoke’s online effort is well pitched for a local audience and is pretty interesting. Some pleasant surprises in there too like the interview with Bishop Moon Hing from Malaysia."

The Annual Christian Broadcasting Council Media Awards recognises and rewards quality Christian programming and content on all platforms.

For more information, you can visit their website by clicking on the link below:

Mary commented: "I hope it will give non churchgoers some kind of insight into the lives of people who do go to church and what it takes to keep a church going, from sorting out fund raising events to ridding the vestry of mice.”

"I can’t thank people enough for getting involved. It would have been nothing without them.”

The judges praised the series for being …”.ambitious and surprising… and showing that there was more to life in Alton than rollercoasters”.

And there's more...

'A Country Parish' remains in the running for further honours. It's also been nominated for the Sandford St. Martin Trust Awards.

The Trust promotes excellence in religious programme-making, primarily through its annual awards for outstanding radio and television broadcasts in the United Kingdom.

A Country Parish is on the shortlist in the radio category. The winner will be announced on Monday 1st June at Lambeth Palace, which is the official London residence of the Archbishop of Canterbury.

Link

To see and hear the Country Parish series, just click on the link in the top right-hand corner of this page.