Wilberforce Church on Look-Out for Local History Buffs

The church at which anti-slavery campaigner William Wilberforce was baptised as a baby is appealing for local history buffs to volunteer for its expanding visitor team.

Holy Trinity Church in Hull is England's largest parish church and has just appointed Emily Keane, formerly of the East Yorkshire Historic Churches Trust, to lead the team of volunteers and make the church more accessible to visitors, reports Yorkshire Today. She hopes to add a further 18 volunteers to the existing team of 12.

Associate Minister, the Rev Philip Ball, welcomed the appointment of Keane and the new volunteers will give to tourism in terms of visitors to the church and the wider Hull area.

"In most cities, churches like ours bring quite a large amount of tourism into the city itself and we haven't been doing that because we haven't been open. We get quite a lot of people coming to the door who are disappointed because they find it closed and that is something we want to address," he said.

The church, which opened in 1285, is rich in interesting historical features. Not only does it retain the original font at which anti-slavery campaigner William Wilberforce was baptised, it also has two of the country's highly coveted 11 Sparrow and Crane-designed stained glass windows. Fine oak carvings undertaken by George Peck during restoration work in the period 1841 to 1846 complete the set.

Mrs Keane said: "I would really welcome more volunteers, even if they can only spare a few hours a month. The more people we have the longer Holy Trinity can stay open.

"The church belongs to the community and should be enjoyed by as many people as possible."

At 25,000 visitors per year, the Hands on History Museum a few hundred yards away in Trinity Square massively outnumbers the church in visitors numbers, Holy Trinity welcoming only around 5,000 through its doors each year.

Staff hope to open the church in the evenings during summer and during the afternoons at weekends. The bell tower might be opened for guided tours.

The church's Outside In project has been funded by a £50,000 grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund and the project will capitalise on a recent £2.25m renovation to the church.