'Pop-up' Portsmouth Cathedral to visit Hampshire schools to mark Year of the Pilgrimage

The tent has been created by county designer Ben Bracken and is made up of high-quality pictures of the real Portsmouth Cathedral, including its stained-glass windows, stonework, roof tiles and doors.

Schools across south-east Hampshire and the Isle of Wight can book the pop-up church to visit their playgrounds.

Portsmouth Diocese said the visits could give classes an opportunity to do fun activities and learn about concepts like love, faith and peace.

The pop-up cathedral will be officially launched at Portsmouth Cathedral, in High Street, between 2pm and 4.30pm on Tuesday, March 31.

More than 100 schoolchildren got the chance to see it when it was unveiled at the Federation of Liss Infant and Junior Schools, near Petersfield.

Cathedral education officer, Sarah Page, said: ‘It was great to be able to unveil the pop-up cathedral and see how children reacted to it.

‘Many had never visited a cathedral, so this was a chance for the peace and spirituality associated with cathedrals to visit them instead.

‘The feedback we had from the school was overwhelmingly positive and we look forward to officially launching it so that everyone can see it in action.

She added: ‘We were really impressed with the design. Ben Bracken from Bee Creative spent a lot of time photographing individual windows, parts of the roof, bits of stonework and objects displayed on the walls in our cathedral.

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‘To have them reproduced on the inside and outside of the canvas in this way is incredible.

‘Cathedrals across England are celebrating the Year of Pilgrimage this year, so it’s a perfect time for our pop-up cathedral to do its own pilgrimage around the diocese.

‘We hope it will grow relationships between schools, local churches and our cathedral.’

A pilgrimage is long journey made to a sacred place as an act of religious devotion.