On Saturday 18 September the doors of St Peter’s in Cradley were wide open to welcome people from the local community and further afield to find out more about the church’s past, present and future.
James Brookes reports on the church's activities for this year's Heritage Open Days.
"What a wonderful day we had! There was a nice steady flow of visitors during the morning with lots of people talking to Val and Jill from Cradley Then and Now History Group about family history.
52 brave teddy bears jumped 80ft from our tower - with a parachute of course! Many thanks to George, Liz, Katie and Simon from our ringers for running this.
This was all followed by an excellent concert of organ pipes and electronics by Michael Carter.
Michael put our restored Compton pipe organ through its paces and made it sound just like a proper cinema organ. He also played his Yamaha electronic organ which he also pre-recorded music on so that he could start some pieces on the electronic and then move to the Compton and play along with his own backing track – all very clever!
64 people attended the concert with regulars and some new faces too! Some had travelled on the train from Stafford to be with us.
A massive thank you to everyone who helped make and serve refreshments, run the parachute jump, welcome people and run the raffle. Thank you to Fr Rob for his support and to Michael Carter for playing for us.
Next concert is Saturday 9th October at 2.30pm with local choir, Voices in Harmony - free entry!
Sign up to our mailing list to be notified of future concerts by sending an email to stpeterscradley@outlook.com and put join mailing list in the subject line.
Donations were counted the following day and we're very pleased to say that a total amount of £404.42 was raised! This will be used to help complete the tower project. Any funds left over will go towards the reordering of the nave to give a more flexible community space.
It was such a good feeling to be up and running again!"
Watch a short video of one of the teddy bear parachute drops!
