Families across Kingston gathered outside All Saints Church in the half-term hiatus to hunt skeletons in broad daylight.
The ‘Silly Skeleton’ trail around the church and churchyard was the first of its kind, encouraging local residents to hunt the skeletons hidden in plain sight and decipher the secret code of church memorials.
Kate Kern, Heritage and Learning Officer for All Saints, said: “We try to run events that are more heritage-based than faith-based to highlight the range of heritage we have here in the church.
“We wanted to try something new that fitted in with the Halloween theme without being overtly Halloween. There are a lot of beautiful monuments which all have foolery decoration such as skulls and skeletons, which is a fun way to engage kids and encourage them to examine parts of the church they may not normally see.”
Local mum-of-two Julia Joules attended the trail with her daughters. She said: “We absolutely love it. We attend the church events every school holiday and they are not to be missed.”
All Saints is the historic parish church of Kingston, whose bounds at one time stretched from Richmond to Molesey.
The first King of England, Athelstan, was crowned at All Saints Church, arguably making Kingston the place where England began.
After being crowned in Kingston in 925 AD, Athelstan defeated the Scots and Vikings, unifying regional kingdoms into one nation.
Over the following centuries as many as eight Saxon kings were consecrated at All Saints Church.
