VisitSt. Botolph’s

“St. Botolph’s, otherwise known as ‘Boston Stump’ is a very special place and I hope you catch a sense of that as you visit us. The beauty of the building is breath-taking. We are inheritors and custodians of an extraordinary vision which could imagine and build something of this scale and grandeur. There is so much here which makes us marvel, admiring human ingenuity and the faith which motivated it.

Yet I also hope you encounter the community here – the staff, volunteers and worshippers who try to make a difference for God. They offer an attractive, confident Christianity, a warmth of welcome, and a willingness to engage. Within our building and community we hope to be a Place of Hospitality for you and those you love.”

Alyson Buxton – Team Rector for the Parish of Boston

Come and climb 209 steps for the Tower Experience and then visit the Coffee Shop & Gift Shop or reflect in our sacred space. The kids will love our Treasure Trail & Play Den! St Botolph’s Church is open daily and is free to enter although charges do apply to the Tower Experience. Daily deals are available from the Coffee Shop with Soup being served on Wednesdays and Saturdays throughout the year. Tours are offered, for more information please see here.

To find Lincoln hotels nearby, visit HotelsCombined

Opening Times

Church

Monday – Saturday
8:30 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.

Sunday
7:30 a.m. – 4:00 p.m / Re-opening at 5:00 p.m. for the evening service

Stump Gift Shop, Tower Experience & The Big Lego Build

Monday – Saturday
10am until 3:30pm

Sunday
1:00pm – 3:30pm

Coffee Shop

Monday – Saturday
10am – 3:30pm

Sunday
Closed

Service Times

Sunday Services
BCP Said Eucharist – 8:00 am
Sung Eucharist – 10:30am
1st & 3rd Sunday – Choral Evensong – 6:00pm
2nd Sunday – Celtic Evening Prayer – 6:00pm
4th Sunday – Headspace@6 – 6:00pm

Mid-week Service
Said Eucharist – Wednesday at 10:30am
Chaplaincy – 11:00am – 12:00pm
Midday Prayers – Wednesday at 12:00pm

Please see Worship Services here as service times can change.

How to find us

Blenkin Memorial Hall

Please not from the 1st January 2017 the Blenkin Memorial Hall will not be available for hire.

History of the Church

St. Botolph’s Church, often known as ‘Boston Stump’, is spectacular from outside and in and is described by Pevsner as a ‘giant among English Parish churches’. Boston Stump has always been a landmark to both seafarers and people travelling across the flat fenland that surrounds the town.

Replacing an earlier Norman church, construction of the present building commenced in 1309 at the east end and was completed by 1390, apart from the tower. The tower construction was started in 1425-1430 but not completed until 1510-1520. The Chancel was originally only designed to be three bays long but was lengthened by two additional bays to the east, possibly because of the growing importance of commercial and religious life of the town.

In post reformation times there has been remodelling of the interior of the building. With some minor exceptions, the exterior has remained much as it would have been at the time of the reformation. Internally a major programme of work remodelled the church with box pewing, a timber and plaster vault and a sweeping away of the medieval screens, rood and seating arrangements. The interior of the church now largely reflects two significant periods of restoration, in the mid 19th century and in the second decade of the 20th Century.

Over its 700 years the church has played its part in both national and international history. It will be forever linked through the puritan emigrants who in 1630 followed in the wake of the Pilgrim Fathers and founded a new Boston in the United States of America. The size of which has long since surpassed Boston in Lincolnshire, but the close links are never forgotten.