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The Gadfield Elm Chapel in England on Thursday, Oct. 28, 2021. Wilford Woodruff converted hundreds from the United Brethren Church to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1840. Photo by Jeffrey D. Allred, courtesy of Church News. Copyright 2023 Deseret News Publishing Company.This story appears here courtesy of TheChurchNews.com. It is not for use by other media.
By Trent Toone, Church News
A new website is offering an array of virtual tours and information about historic sites of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the United Kingdom and Ireland.
Videos on the website — ldsvirtualtours.uk — take viewers inside Gadfield Elm Chapel, the Church’s oldest building, to the River Ribble, where many early Saints were baptized, and on to other key locations in the region. The website’s eight virtual tours are narrated by young Latter-day Saint adults.
The website also provides information about other historic locations, including London’s Hyde Park Chapel, the London and Preston England Temples, the villages of Downham and Chatburn, Birmingham and more.
The Idea for Virtual Tours in U.K. and Ireland
The idea for the website came in 2020 when travel was limited due to the onset of the pandemic. Arnold Jones, a regional Church history specialist, collaborated with the Church’s U.K./Ireland History Council to create a virtual tour for the Gadfield Elm Chapel.
UK-sites
A tour is taken in the Gadfield Elm Chapel in England on Thursday, October 28, 2021. Wilford Woodruff converted hundreds from the United Brethren Church to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1840. Photo by Jeffrey D. Allred, courtesy of Church News.Copyright 2023 Deseret News Publishing Company.The project received help from a volunteer missionary couple, Elder Martin Andersen and Sister Eva Andersen, who had filmmaking experience. Michael Rigby also stepped in to fill Jones’ role and the project continued forward.
Elder and Sister Andersen assembled volunteers from the Cheltenham Stake and used historic period costumes from the Church’s British Pageant production to film a scene of Saints inside Gadfield Elm Chapel. That first project was completed in November 2022.
After the Church closed historic sites in the United States due to the pandemic in 2020, missionaries began providing virtual tours.
Take a historic sites virtual tour at ChurchofJesusChrist.org.
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The River Ribble in England on Wednesday October 27, 2021. Many converts to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints were baptized in the river through early missionary efforts. Photo by Jeffrey D. Allred, courtesy of Church News.Copyright 2023 Deseret News Publishing Company.Other Virtual Tours in the U.K. and Ireland
Encouraged by the result, the group made additional virtual tours.
“Knowing of the many significant Church history sites in the U.K. and Ireland, it seemed a shame to not feature them in similar virtual tours,” Elder Andersen said.
Others videos include:
- The Herefordshire Beacon tour
- The King James Bible tour
- Northern Ireland and Ireland tour
- Preston, River Ribble tour
- Liverpool, Manchester tour
- Wales tour
- Scotland tour
The website comes with a disclaimer that it is not an official website of the Church, but it does direct visitors to official Church websites and other information. The new website was featured in an article on the Church’s regional website.
Copyright 2023 Deseret News Publishing Company.