THEY COULDN’T wait for Tuesday. At St Chad’s, Bishop’s Tachbrook, in Coventry diocese, they raced with their pancakes at the family service on Shrove Sunday —the alternative popular name, Canon Mervyn Roberts tells me, for Quinquagesima.

During the service his wife, Sue Roberts, and a team of helpers cooked enough pancakes in the small kitchen at the back of the church to be ready for the races. Then nearly everyone adjourned to the churchyard — with pancakes and frying pans provided — for the races (pictured). There were no worries about health and safety.

“Old customs are important,” says Canon Roberts. “We need to pass on our festivals, feast days, and fasts to future generations, so it seemed a good opportunity to use our family service to keep the tradition of pancake making as a preparation for Lent.”

And the pancake-making went on. Even after the races, enough were provided by the team of cooks for everyone to eat their fill.