A church in Oxfordshire has become the first to establish its own localised WI-FI network for visitors.
St Mary the Virgin Church at Great Milton launched the info point at Christmas to enable anyone with a mobile phone to view an interactive 11-point tour of the Grade I listed building and its historic features.
The Revd Simon Cronk, Rector of Great Milton, Little Milton and Great Haseley, said: “Our Info Point is just the first step in our church eventually getting more in tune with the expectations of the 21st century. We are close to getting the authority to add a toilet, kitchenette plus other enhancements as well as proceed with a long overdue conservation of our outstanding Dormer Monument.”
The 17th century monument was part of the motivation to launch this project, as it is due to undergo restoration works this year which will also be recorded on the tour. There is a picture jigsaw for visitors to complete and plans to introduce a quiz for children.
St Mary’s gets an exceptional number of overseas visitors for a small village church because of its immediate proximity to Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons hotel.
Revd Cronk added: “We already have an excellent guide book but we can now compare favourably with some of the country’s well-visited places for innovative interpretation and this will be appreciated by the local residents as well as our visitors.”
Info Point, developed by the Derbyshire based company Wildfi, has been coined the ‘internet in the box’ and while it is completely independent of the world wide web it works in the same way, just on a very localised scale.
Local fundraising to conserve the Dormer Monument and encourage enhanced information on the monument.was matched by grants from Oxfordshire Historic Churches Trust, Leche Trust, Morris Fund and the Benefact Trust.
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