St Peter's Church in Cradley have been holding bi-monthly concerts as a way to connect with the local community and the number of people attending has been steadily increasing. James Brookes tells us about them.
St Peter’s Church at Cradley has been running fundraising concerts since 2018 and has seen audience numbers grow over that time. The concerts started following the successful restoration, to full working order, of the church’s 1933 Compton Pipe Organ. Since then the organ has not only been used for regular services but has also been showcased in numerous free concerts which have been raising funds to save and restore the clock saved from the now demolished Church of St Luke in neighbouring Cradley Heath.
In the early days we were getting around 30 – 40 people but over the last coupe of years our numbers have been steadily growing especially since September last year. After a break of over two years we resumed the series in September 2021 which was also our Heritage Open Day – our first since the pandemic. We weren’t sure how many people to expect and were going to be happy with an audience of 30. We were amazed that we in fact had an audience of 64 to come and hear cinema organist, Michael Carter play our Compton and his Yamaha electronic organ. This was followed by local well-known choir Voices in Harmony where we had a choir of 50 voices and an audience of 94. After a short break over Christmas organist James Bradley and his wife Jess brought us Music for the New Year with organ, piano and recorder duets. Again we had a healthy audience of 68.
Our latest concert which was held in March 2022 was a tribute to the old Majestic Cinema in Cradley Heath which can be seen from St Peter’s churchyard. It is the last cinema in the midlands to retain its original Christie cinema organ.
The building is now derelict but to commemorate the 89th anniversary of its opening, St Peter’s Church was transformed into a 1930’s cinema thanks to four very talented cinema organists – Cameron Lloyd, Damon Willetts, Alec Walters and David Lobban. All four are members of Cannock Chase Organ Club and they have recently taken on the tuning and maintenance of our organ. Not only did they play the Compton in the cinema style but they also played the piano and electronic organ too. Damon learnt to play the organ at the Majestic as a teenager and we also found out that former organist of St Peter’s, the late Aubrey Burrows was also a deputy organist at the Majestic.
At the end of the concert there were standing ovations and shouts for more. We will definitely get them back again! We are looking into the possibility of having an evening where we will show a silent black and white film on our big screen with live organ accompaniment. Keep an eye on our Facebook page for dates.
There are still more concerts planned for 2022 with Cradley Heath Male Voice Choir on Saturday 14th May at 2.30pm. All our concerts are free and include tea, coffee and homemade cakes during the interval.
For full details and dates visit www.stpeterscradley.org/events
We have found this to be an excellent form of outreach to our community, has put us on the map for live music and encouraged people to return.
