Friends of Chantry Chapel Newsletter
The Chantry Chapel of St Mary Wakefield ·
| chairmans_report.pdf |
| chantrynews_99_august_2018.pdf |
| chantry_news_letter_91_.docx |
| chantry_news-letter_92.pdf |
| chantry_news-letter_93.pdf |
THE FRIENDS OF WAKEFIELD CHANTRY CHAPEL
Registered charity no 1004105
Chairman’s Report for the Year 2014-15
The Friends have again packed a great deal into the past year. We opened the chapel on the public-holiday Mondays, for the National Heritage weekend, and on Wednesday afternoons in August. As always I am very grateful to the stalwarts among the Friends who staff these occasions.
We have hosted a number of group visits. These are made by secular bodies such as U3A groups interested in the history of the building and its architecture or by church groups including one from St Margaret’s, Ilkley, one from Gildersome Mothers’ Union, and one from the Men’s Group at St James’ Thornes.
As in previous years, we marked the Festival of British Archaeology in August, when Brian Holding gave a presentation on gargoyles, showing the film he has made of these decorative water-spouts on churches across the former Wakefield Diocese.
The Friends have organised a wide range of events, I think the right adjective is ‘eclectic’. Among these were a recital in May by Andrew (and Ann) Clark, organised by Diana Grudgings, demonstrating the versatility of the Roland Digital Piano; a show of quite amazing fashions in July which brought an unusual (for the Chantry) crowd of young people; and an exhibition over two days in October of models created at Wakefield Day Centre of significant Wakefield buildings; Kate Taylor gave short talks about the buildings portrayed. At the end of March 2015, many people who are connected by the Wakefield Historical Appreciation Site met in the Chantry for an evening looking at and discussing images reflecting the history of the town.
I spoke after our annual meeting in June 2014 about Wakefield in the First World War. We had hoped to have a speaker from the Chantry in Rotherham but repeated contacts failed to find one.
The annual Party on the Bridge in August was modestly successful but we were disappointed that so few children attended especially as the Pop-up Cathedral came with activities and treats for them. The working group determined to hold the 2015 Party on the Bridge in July in the hope of a better patronage.
The Chantry has also been open on each of the occasions of the bi-monthly Wakefield Art Walk and we are grateful to Brian Holding for organising this. However the events in the colder months of the year were poorly attended with considerable disappointment for the artists themselves. As a consequence, it was decided to focus in 2015 on only the three mid-year evenings.
There were major repairs to the outside of the chapel during the summer. The Friends have funded these with a consequent serious reduction in our capital. At least we have ensured that all the recommendations from the Quinquennial Report have been met and have the satisfaction of seeing the building in good order. Whilst the workmen were with us, the mechanism of the composting lavatory was damaged and it took some time to secure a replacement part. We were grateful to the Cathedral head verger for pursing this. We were also very grateful to Christian Hazell of Tubs and Taps for making his staff lavatory available even, on the important occasion of the Christmas concert by pupils from Wakefield Girls’ High School, for remaining open well beyond the store’s closing time.
We had three, very well attended, events at Christmas. Their concert was the first time that girls from the High School had performed in the chapel. Additionally we had a programme of Christmas music from St Austin’s Choir, and the now-traditional Requiem for Richard Duke of York on 30 December celebrated by Mgr David Smith and with members of the Latin Mass Society of Leeds.
We have seen some strengthening of our relationship with the Hepworth Wakefield. This was most evident in March 2015 when John Goodchild gave two Thursday afternoon talks in the Chantry on the Gotts, Leeds industrialists who amassed a substantial collection of images of Yorkshire which is now in the care of the gallery. A third afternoon was spent at the gallery itself exploring the Gott collection.
We have again received donations to our funds from the Charles Brotherton Trust (£250) and the Lord St Oswald Trust (£500) and remain very grateful for this annual support.
As a body, we make good use of the opportunities of the internet and social media to advertise our existence and our events. We have a facebook page, Richard Atkinson tweets on our twitter address (@chantrychapel) and Brian Holding maintains our richly detailed web site. This went live in September 2011. Since then it has had 18,410 page views from1,013 places across the world. The site brings a number of contacts asking for individual or group visits. We need more volunteers if we are to remain able to respond positively to these.
We have been saddened by the deaths of two of our long-time members: Margaret Knott, formerly the headmistress of Wakefield Girls’ High School, who often wrote to us after receiving her Newsletter, and Dr Peter Slater who was until very recently an active member of our Committee. He is commemorated by a plaque in the crypt.
Kate Taylor April 2015
The Crypt
Art in the Crypt after the successful installation by Jaimini Patel
The Chantry
Chapel are looking for a new installation
for
(The Crypt )
A small but perfect space for unusual installations if you
are interested get in touch with
Brian
Friends of the Chantry Chapel
BY THE CONTACT PAGE
There are only three Art walks in the a year at the Chantry Chapel
2015 is now full
For 2016 Art Walk
Proposal to Brian Holding through the Chantry contact page
For further information please contact or Brian Holding brian@bholding.f9.co.uk.
2015 is now full
For 2016 Art Walk
Proposal to Brian Holding through the Chantry contact page
For further information please contact or Brian Holding brian@bholding.f9.co.uk.
THE FRIENDS OF WAKEFIELD CHANTRY CHAPEL
Registered charity no 1004105
Chairman’s Report for the Year 2013-14
Presented at the Annual Meeting on 4 June in the
Chantry Chapel
This has been another very satisfactory year. We held open days on the public holidays in April, May and August and opened on Wednesday afternoons in June. Our Party on the Bridge on 3 August was a great success with an abundant cake stall, the now popular game of Pooh Sticks, and Victorian games on the bridge organised by the Cathedral Heritage Officer, Tracey Yates. Wakefield Djembe Circle entertained with their drumming and encouraged visitors to join them. We were also open for the National Heritage Days in September. These activities are possible only through the loyal support of the Friends who staff them.
The Cathedral Education Department, under the organisation of Ali Bullivent, has again drawn a range of school groups to the Chapel and has provided a number of holiday workshops.
We held two events in July to mark the Festival of British Archaeology. On 17 July we had a talk on the role of toll-keepers and on 22 July Kate Taylor provided a guided walk looking at bridges in the vicinity of the Chantry from the medieval to the 21 century.
The Friends arranged a number of other very successful events. In April we had a lecture recital celebrating 150 years of Hymns Ancient and Modern, with the St John’s Singers from Hoylandswaine and speaker Elizabeth Charlesworth. On 29 November St Austin’s Choir provided a concert of music ‘from Ancient to Modern’. The Latin Mass Society of Leeds provided the music for a Requiem Mass for Richard Plantagenet, Duke of York, on 30 December. Our final event was an evening marking Earth Hour on 29 March.
The Chantry has also been open on each of the occasions of the Wakefield Art Walk and we are grateful to Brian Holding for organising this.
We have entertained a range of visiting groups. Including Almondbury and Farnley Tyas Mothers Union (April), staff from British Waterways (May), Spen Valley Mothers Union (June), Eccleshall Church Women’s Social Group (June), Essex Townswomen’s Guild (June), Blackheath Halls (June), Oldham U3A (June), National Trust Wharfedale Group (June), and Winchester NADFAS (National Association of Decorative and Fine Arts Societies) (September),
The speaker at our annual meeting in June was Michael Bradley, Administrative Deacon at Wakefield Baptist Church, who told us of the work that is done at the Baptist Centre at Belle Isle with the homeless. He emphasised the need for winter scarves, socks and gloves for those sleeping rough. Accordingly we appealed for these for the Harvest Festival Service in October and were able donate a clutch of warm items to the Church. We opened the Chantry for an overnight Vigil for the Homeless on 25 October when members of Wakefield Baptist Chapel organised a fund-raising sleep-out on the bridge. The Baptist team provided hot drinks and cakes.
A notable achievement has been the provision of a splendidly robust noticeboard with a window-panel in which we can place posters. This has been made in the workshops at Wakefield Prison and erected at a site approved by English Heritage at the Doncaster Road end of the bridge by Wakefield MDC Highways Department. It has been financed by the Wakefield Neighbourhood Improvement Fund. It was blessed by the Bishop of Wakefield, the Right Reverend Stephen Platten, in December. We are grateful for the support and advice of Jane Brown (Wakefield MDC Highways), Councillor Olivia Rowley, and Wakefield City Centre Manager, Andrew Woodhead in seeing the scheme to fruition.
Brian Holding has maintained our website From the point when it was set up in 2011we have had 12,114 page views from 549 cities across the world . We now get between 30 and 50 visits a week. Richard Atkinson tweets for us @chantrychapel.
Our finances are in good shape but we are still very well short of our target capital of £100,000. Members have been very generous in making additional donations to our funds. We received £250 from the Charles Brotherton Trust and £500 from the Rowland St Oswald Charitable Trust. In February, your chair went to a symposium in London on Bridge Chapels, organised by the Ecclesiological Society. This brought us a donation of £100 from the Rochester Bridge Trust.
We submitted the final report to the Heritage Lottery Fund about our project to reorder the Chantry and received the outstanding £5,000.
The anticipated repairs to the exterior of the Chantry were not, in the end, undertaken in 2013-4 but by the time of the 2014 annual meeting they will be in hand, carried out by Castle Masonry of Conisbrough under the supervision of our architect, John Bailey.
Kate Taylor May 2014
The Bishop dedicating the new Chantry notice board
Friday 20th December 2013
on the Chantry Bridge
Wakefield
|
|