|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
Friends of Walpole Old Chapel The Historic Chapels Trust Annual Newsletter 2010
Secretary - Christina van Melzen 01986 798308 secretary@walpoleoldchapel.co.uk Treasurer - Jeremy Henry treasurer@walpoleoldchapel.co.uk
If you would like to download a copy of the 2010 newsletter in .pdf format, click here
Walpole Old Chapel Annual Newsletter 2010 News from the Friends. There have been some changes among the Friends of Walpole Old Chapel. Firstly early last year we lost our dear friend the Revd Peter Clarke. It hardly seemed possible that he was playing the organ and reading at our Christmas Carols & Readings and by March he was no longer with us. Everybody who knew him loved him, as the wonderful memorial service at the URC in Beccles proved. He had been a great supporter of the Old Chapel and is greatly missed. Frances and Bob Sutherland are leaving us and moving back to the west country. Frances has been involved with the chapel from long before the HCT took it over in 1995. She and Bob have been splendid behind the scenes helpers, we will miss them both and wish them all the very best in their return to their roots. We are very grateful for a grant from the Heveningham Hall Country Fair Trust for a donation to enable us to replace the wooden gate with one made to match the iron fencing in front of the chapel. Permission has now been given and it will shortly be erected. The Friends next project will be to raise money to take down the fencing, have the rust removed and the fence properly preserved and re-erected. Our thanks also to Rodney Hunt of the Antique Chair Shop at Kirstead Green for kindly restoring two of the very dilapidated chairs in the chapel. It is an extremely generous gift of time and skill and much appreciated. The Friends have also had some wiring work undertaken and have installed some very discreet lights on the stairways. Bill Mahood has had a busy first year as chairman, he has taken over the arrangements for group visits from David Holmes, who has done sterling work for many years speaking to groups from far and wide, but feels it is time to pass that to somebody else. Bill also proved that men are just as good as women at multi-tasking, when he led the service and played the organ at the Carols & Readings as the snow had made the journey by Tony Perceval from Colchester impossible. Tony Perceval has also been instrumental in arranging for a replacement harmonium, one with the great advantage of not needing to be pumped physically. The Estey Organ, which is painted in a rather dashing blue, something we hope to rectify, has been kindly given to us by the congregation of the URC in Chappel. Our old organ will remain in the vestry.
2009 Events We have had a satisfactory number of visitors to the chapel but the evening events have not been well attended. Afternoons seem to suit our friends better, so you will see that reflected in our plans for the coming season. Kate Foley – our poet in residence- arranged for a very successful poetry reading by a group of women poets who had recently produced an anthology entitled ‘A Twist of Malice’ and pretty malicious some of it was. The Halesworth Café Poets visited again for an afternoon of home-grown poetry. There were two weddings and a baby blessing as well as visits from our old friends from the Norfolk Galley Quire and the Waveney Valley Brass, who in 2010 will have been entertaining us in the chapel for ten years and are giving an anniversary concert to celebrate. The Carols & Readings went well with the children of the Old School at Henstead singing for us and Phoebe Thomas-Weekes from next-door-but-one singing an unaccompanied 15th century carol to great effect. The 2010 Programme Events for this season are listed below, but please check the web-site or local press for any further events. Additionally there will be a Quaker Meeting for Worship held at 10.30 on the last Sunday of each month starting on the 30th of May with the final meeting on the 26th of September, and we have a wedding booked for the 4th of September. Teas will be available at the afternoon events. 29th May – Concert by the Waveney Valley Brass 4.00 20th June – Annual Service; Preacher the Revd Alan Ashton. 3.00 26th June – Michael Cole ‘Reporting East Anglia on TV in the 60’s’ 4.00 10th July – The Norfolk Gallery Quire 3.00 24th July – Peter Purvis ‘Beyond Blue Peter’ 4.00 7th August – Chris Doddridge will play Indian Classical Music 3.00 15th August – Halesworth Café Poets 5.00 19th September – ‘Songs of Praise’ Waveney Valley Brass 3.00 31st October – The Village Quire (West Gallery music from the Welsh Borders) 3.00 18th December – Carols & Readings for Christmas 3.00
Opening Times The open days have been extended to reflect requirements and we will now open on Saturday afternoons from 2.00 to 4.30 from the 29th of May until the 25th of September.
For all further information please contact the secretary to the Friends of Walpole Old Chapel Christina van Melzen on 01986 798 308 or chrisvanmelzen@btopenworld.com
|