Issue 4 November 2007
FRIENDS NEWSLETTER Firstly, we would like to wish all the Friends of Long Street Methodist Church a Happy Christmas! The aim of our Newsletter is to keep you updated as to our latest progress and activities.
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FRIENDS OF LONG STREET METHODIST CHURCH NEWSLETTER
In this Newsletter : •
reports on where funds raised are being used,
•
news about our successful Heritage Open Days weekend,
•
news of a unique opportunity to purchase an Edgar Wood print and help support the Friends of Long Street Methodist Church.
HERITAGE SUCCESS! The Heritage Open Days held in September was considered to be the best yet (more on page 2) Left: The Mayor of Rochdale tries his hand at sculpting some stone with the stonemasons from Lloyd and Smith during the Heritage Weekend Bottom: A well attended exhibition of Edgar Wood’s work in Middleton was on display in the Hall
LONG STREET METHODIST HERITAGE OPEN DAY The recent Heritage Open Day at Long Street Methodist proved to be one of the best Long Street Methodist Church has ever had. Unlike previous years, it was decided to open up most of the annexe buildings as well as the church itself to the public. We had visitors from all over the UK and would like to extend our gratitude for your support. In the courtyard was a display of heritage skills and crafts, including lead sheet workers, traditional roofers, joiners and stonemasons. All of the skills on display would have been used in the building of Long Street Methodist. Needless to say the heritage skills event proved very popular. The mayor of Rochdale visited on the Friday and had a go at carving some stone. Local school children from Heywood also visited the event and were given hands on demonstrations by the craftsmen. Local joinery firm, Johnson Brothers had on display a decorative door from a Mosque and also gave instructions on forming and joining wood. IBIS Roofing gave lead beating and slating demonstrations; whilst stonemasons Lloyd and Smith held a carving demonstration and had samples of new ornate window tracery being prepared for a church undergoing refurbishment. The Friends of Long Street Methodist Church commissioned local architectural photographer Andy Marshall to photograph as many of the Edgar Wood buildings in Middleton as possible, in his own particular style. The resulting exhibition was a great success, providing Middleton folk with a remarkable and unique collection of professional images of key buildings in their locality. Event organiser Christine Grime says “ It was great to see so many people attending the exhibition and commenting on how it had changed their view on Middleton. We had just under £1500 in print orders. As well as the fantastic prints, we have a wonderful resource of images which we intend to keep here at Long Street Methodist I S SU E 4
Church and give access to all for research and educational purposes. Moves are afoot to achieve funding for a permanent exhibition.” Andy Marshall took over 3 months to take the photos and processed around 500 images, including all the architectural details of Wood’s buildings. He says ”Edgar Wood’s buildings alone mark out this proud old town as being a little different than others. How many cities, notwithstanding towns, have the benefit of the unadulterated patronage of an architectural genius – and also reflect the full architectural development of such a genius? Add to this the remarkable collection of significant other buildings scattered throughout the town, and we have something that can’t and won’t remain unnoticed forever.” Readers may have seen the recent article in the Middleton Guardian which reported on a potential new Edgar Wood building having been discovered by Andy during his travels. This building was revealed at the Exhibition as Albion Buildings on Wood Street, and many people came in to see this alone after reading the article. The exhibition has now been placed on the internet, and some might be surprised to hear that it has a strong international following, with praise and comments being received from all over the world. One of the images added to the virtual exhibition didn’t actually make it to the Long Street event. Andy comments “Just like at a dinner party, you always leave something in the oven by mistake; I did the same with this image and forgot to get it printed in time. It is ironic that this particular image of the Long Street Methodist gates, has proved to be an online smash, reaching the top 500 images out of over 20 million images on the photo sharing site called flickr. All the images can now be seen online at www.fotofacade.com . Click on the “Edgar Wood” button. Page 2
FUNDING THE FUTURE—HOW IS YOUR MONEY BEING Whilst the long and often drawn out process of planning the future of Long Street Methodist Church with the Heritage Trust North West takes place. The Friends of Long Street Methodist Church have been campaigning for funds to help service this process in terms of funding a feasibility study which will look at ways of using the additional buildings around the church. Funds have now exceeded £10,000 and the Friends strategy has also been to finance small projects which relate to maintaining the fabric of the building, thus ensuring that it is kept in good order. Funding has been used for window repairs and extra security measures. More recently, funds of
over £3000 have been promised for critical repairs to the roof gulley over the kitchen which is leaking and damaging the building fabric. Ventilation grilles (to replace damaged and missing) for the nave external wall have also been sourced and funded. Raising the profile of the Long Street Methodist buildings is very important, and funds have also been used to promote, educate and inform. More recently, the Friends funded and organised the setup costs for the Heritage Open Days and used funds to com-
mission local photographer (and Friend) Andy Marshall to provide an exhibition based upon Edgar Wood in Middleton. The exhibition was a great success and received just under £1500 worth of orders for prints. Additionally, it is a key goal to initiate strong associations with Edgar Wood and Middleton’s built heritage and history. This type of association will feed into the feasibility study and may provide lead ideas as to how the ancillary buildings around the church can be utilised. Currently, the Friends, have applied for additional funding from the local township to support a permanent exhibition of the prints to be based at Long Street and also to be licensed out to other venues. The exhibition can be used as a spring board to educate, inform and raise the profile of Long Street Methodist buildings and Middleton’s wider heritage.
WHY WE STILL NEED YOUR HELP Recently, a number additional security to of the beautiful stone “Recent flooding ….has prevent such thefts hapslates to various arpening again. eas of the roof have caused damage to the If we are successful with slipped or broken the funding for a permafabric…” and estimates for nent Edgar Wood exhibirepair are in the tion, funding will be rethousands. Access is quired for improvement of the fabric difficult and it costs significant to the potential exhibition area. It is amounts of money to keep the roof imperative that the area is as profesrepaired. sionally presented as possible with Recent flooding (from the roof) to the signage, display and lighting playing a hall and kitchen area caused some key part. damage to the fabric. A spate of vandalism and theft of the lead metal from the roof has also caused further damage. Whilst we have repaired this with insurance funds, extra costs are envisaged for
Right: Damage to the lead bay roof in the courtyard caused by theft of lead and vandalism
YOUR DONATIONS ARE MAKING A REAL IMPACT—THANKS FOR YOUR SUPPORT IF YOU ARE ABLE TO HELP, PLEASE MAKE YOUR DONATIONS OUT TO ‘FRIENDS OF LONG STREET METHODIST CHURCH’ AND SEND THEM TO: ANDREW SLIM, BEAUVALLON, 13 WOODLANDS WAY, ALKRINGTON, MIDDLETON, M24 1WL.—THANK YOU. ISSUE 4
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RAISING THE PROFILE
Friends of Long Street Methodist Church have been working hard to raise our profile by getting involved with the media. Recently, a wonderful article on the Long Street Methodist buildings was published in “Ecclesiastical and Heritage World” magazine. The “Middleton Guardian” also covered the Heritage Open Day and the discovery of a potential new Edgar Wood building by Andy Marshall whilst out on a commission funded by the Friends. As we go to press, another article on the Exhibition is soon to appear in the Middleton Guardian.
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EDGAR WOOD IN MIDDLETON PURCHASE A SIGNED LIMITED EDITION PRINT
Here is an exclusive offer to purchase an Edgar Wood photographic print and at the same time support the Friends of Long Street Methodist Church. All funds go straight to the Friends of Long Street Methodist Church.
A copy of the prints can be seen at the back of this Newsletter,. You can view larger versions and get more information if you can get onto the internet to see“Virtual Exhibition” online. To do this go to www.fotofacade.com and click on the “Edgar Wood” button. All prints are signed limited edition prints and come with a certificate of authenticity
A3 PRINTS All prints are sized A3 except for the prints shown on this page. They are supplied with a white mount and require framing. Prices are £30 for a first edition (not many left!) and £25 for a subsequent edition print.
LARGE FORMAT PRINTS The prints on this page are available in a 3ft by 3ft format or 2ft by 2ft format on a foamcore (sturdy) backing and require framing. Prices are for the 3ft by 3ft prints—£125 for a first edition and £95 for a subsequent edition print and for the 2ft by 2ft—£95 for a first edition and £75 for a subsequent edition print.
All prints are printed in a high quality LAMBDA archival format.
To purchase a print please contact Andy Marshall on 07899998701 or email him at ajmarshy@yahoo.co.uk.
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ISSUE 4
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