In October my dad and I took part in the Stonepillow Big Sleep Out at Chichester Cathedral. Between us and with the help of friends, cardboard and lots of sellotape we built a cardboard church for us to sleep in.

By the time we arrived many people had already started building their cardboard homes for the night, some small, some large. The largest box house was to sleep 30 people! It looked amazing. Our cardboard church was just about big enough for the two of us, it was cozy.

When we had finished building, a group of judges came over and spoke to us about our cardboard church, I hoped they liked it.

Once it got dark it started to get cold very quickly, our cardboard shelter for the night felt surprisingly warm, I was actually excited about going to bed later!

 At 8 o’clock there was a service in the Cathedral, during the service a lady from Stonepillow thanked everyone for coming. The winners of best cardboard shelter were also announced….unfortunately we didn’t we win, but I was glad the huge shelter won.

After the service we headed back outside for fish and chips and a free hot chocolate from Costa.

When I had finished my hot chocolate I was beginning to feel tired, so decided I wanted my shelter and sleeping bag. Not forgetting to set my alarm for 6.45!

The next morning after a cramped night’s sleep, I was woken up very early as we had to take our cardboard shelters to the front of the Cathedral where they would be collected for recycling.

 We had a great time and I’m looking forward to doing it all again next year.

Photographs by Graham Jones