Page 8 - Moravian Messenger November 2019

Reports of the Heritage Weekend from Heritage Weekend at
Cliftonville, Belfast
Cliftonville Moravian Church is situated in North Belfast
and unfortunately other venues that are open for Heritage weekend are some distance away and the number of
visitors dropped to four, so we decided to give it a miss
for a few years. This year we took part again and we felt
it was worthwhile as the ten visitors showed great interest
and spent considerable time looking at the Moravian
building and displays, and were particularly interested
in the development of the Cliftonville/Oldpark area. Most
were unaware of the Old Park House mansion and estate
that were sold towards the end of the 19th century, or
that the Cliftonville Road ended at its gate lodges, and
the existing houses on the Oldpark Road were probably connected with the mill and estate owned by the Lyons family of Old Park House. Changes came quite rapidly when the estate was sold, and the mansion house demolished; Cliftonville Road was extended and joined the Oldpark at Cliftonville Circus and
Heritage Weekend Fairfield
This year we chose
the weekend of
14th and 15th to
open our doors for
heritage weekend, a
tremendous effort
had been made
beforehand to have
everything ready to
welcome our visitors. Lists of volunteers collated; plants cultivated and potted; souvenirs stocked up; knitting needles, crochet hooks and sewing machines made busy; pews polished, carpets swept and graveyard tidied; shopping and baking done (and in some case hidden from prowling spouses); notices prepared and displayed and still the 'to do' list looked to be growing by
the day!
Well Saturday was upon us and a lovely day had dawned, stalls were set, everything was spic and span and the many volunteers were ready for action. The kitchen was at full steam; geysers boiling, crockpot warming, fridges chilling, aprons tied and comfiest shoes on feet - we opened at 11am, our first visitors arrived at 10.15 and no we didn't turn them away! AND they just kept coming all day long till 5pm by which time in all honesty some of us were glad to see the back of them (for that day
at least).
over the years since many housing estates were built. The Moravian Church decided to move from the earlier Church/School in Perth Street to this new venue in 1909.
Sr Edna Cooper
More shopping and baking and restocking Saturday evening and ready to go again after Sunday mornings service. Again, we opened
earlier than our advertised 1pm as the Mayor of Tameside Cllr Leigh Drennan, had decided to visit us and wanted to come at 12.30 -
well how could we say no? And visit he did together with his colleague and Droylsden Councilor David Mills, they had lunch with
us and a good look around, it was great to hear how impressed
they were with everything we had to show
them and hear their comments of support for
future events.
Weather wise not as good a day on the Sunday still
but many more
visitors. In all 254 adults and 25 children signed our visitors' book but they were
by no means the sum of the visitors we had, overall a most successful weekend, all that hard work was worth it, and we raised a total of £1,692.90 for church funds. But maybe more importantly for our future were the lovely comments and possibly the most important one being how welcome they were made to feel, let us pray that they give us more opportunities to show our inclusivity by their attendance in church.
Sr Margery Sutcliffe
128
© Sr Edna Cooper