The volunteers of St Marie’s Heritage Group spent an enjoyable but busy morning decorating the Christmas Tree in St Marie’s and making some final preparations for the Christmas Carol Concert.

Pictured from L to R are Jane, Charlie, Christine, Pat, Peter, Alison and Roger

Please note that all available places for our upcoming Christmas Carol Concert with the Parish Choir of St Wilfrid have now been reserved. Places have been distributed on a first come first served basis. We apologise to anyone who was hoping to attend the event but had not yet booked a place.

Thank you to everyone who has booked a place and we look forward to seeing you on Thursday 8th. The first Carol will be sung at 7pm and the church will be open at 6.15pm.

What could be more magical than gathering in a warm St Marie’s on a brisk December evening to join family & friends in singing some Christmas carols and songs?

We think it’s the perfect way to start the Christmas season.

The St Marie’s Heritage Group are delighted to welcome back the wonderful Parish Choir of St Wilfrid who will be leading attendees in a Christmas singalong on the night. The choir will be choosing their favourite traditional Carols and songs and we will provide copies of the words for anyone who worries about forgetting the next line. The choir will be positioned in front of the beautiful St Marie’s Altar and attendees will sit facing them on the pews and other chairs. We think that when we all sing together it will sound magnificent.

There will be mince pies, mulled wine, hot drinks and our usual array of fabulous biscuits. There will be plenty of time to chat and catch up with old friends after the Carols have been sung.

It’s free to attend but places are limited so please book in advance.

To reserve your place, please call (01928) 592 405 or e-mail heritage@haltonsthelensvca.org.uk

The volunteers of St Marie’s Heritage Group were delighted to welcome over 70 visitors to St Marie’s on Saturday 5th November for the launch of our new St Marie’s Timeline. The 9 banners located around the church documenting the story of the parish and the people and clergy who worshipped and served there from 1861 to 2013 looked magnificent.

The banners certainly sparked a lot of conversation and no doubt brought back lots of memories of times spent with family and friends in the church. There were a number of people and organisations to thank and they included Tesco Community Grants, Halton Area Forum (Halton Borough Council) and John Norris of MacPro Design for the production.

A 43 page booklet was also made available, St Marie’s Church History Timeline; The story of a parish and its people, and we’d like to thank all those who took a copy and left a donation. The Timeline banners are a permanent feature in the church and are able to be viewed Monday to Friday 9.30am to 4.00pm. Copies of the booklet are also available for a donation.

St Marie’s Heritage Group would like to welcome you to St Marie’s to view our new timeline celebrating the history of the church and the clergy and parishioners who served and worshipped there from 1861 to 2007. Whether you attended St Marie’s church or not we are sure you will find something interesting, amusing and thought provoking in the display which will be set out around the church. Come along, meet old friends and have a catch up and as usual there will be plenty of free hot drinks and biscuits.

If you would like to join us please email: heritage@haltonsthelensvca.org.uk or call 01928 592405

Let our experts help you find out who you are!

On the 2nd April we are being joined by family history experts who will be on hand to help you explore your family history.

Inspired by Musson + Retallick’s exhibition ‘The Migrant’, which will be on display, this event will explore how to research your ancestors. Find out who they were, where they came from and what jobs they did – whether they came from Halton or not.

We will have experts from Cheshire Archives, Catalyst Science Discovery Centre and Halton Heritage Partnership with us at St Marie’s for the afternoon with access to online resources and documents.
We will also have the St Marie’s log books available which set out all the parish notices and marriage bans as far back as the 1860’s to help visitors find references to their family members.

Fun activities for families, come along and see what you can find out. The event is free for all.

For more information contact Ruth on 01928 593117 or at haltonheritagehq@gmail.com

Heritage, but not as we know it?

The Migrant, Heritage HQ’s first exhibition created by artists M+R, opened in St Marie’s on Saturday 19th March.

Neil Musson and Jono Retallick are the project’s Heritage Architects – tasked with bringing stories of the borough’s past industries and trades to life in a new way.

Neil and Jono have gathered family stories, exploring where people came from and what work they did, across generations in the Widnes area. These family histories have been recorded by local people in the form of core samples which will go on display in the exhibition

After talking about the exhibition to a couple of Heritage HQ volunteers, one of them commented that a good way of summing it up was ‘heritage, but not as we know it’; a different way of recording and sharing what we know about the past. It’s a bit Star Trek, but it might be right. Come along and see what you think…

You can visit the display any day of the week up until 2nd April (except for Mother’s Day on 27th March).

Matthew (from St Marie’s Heritage Group) created the core sample shown in the photograph below. The different colours represent stages in his journey to St Marie’s. This includes (starting on the right) purple & white for St Luke’s RC Primary School, red & black for Frodsham JFC, orange & black for the University of York, green & white for Halton Community Radio, purple, blue and white for Halton & St Helens VCA and (lastly) blue for St Marie’s.

The volunteers of St Marie’s Heritage Group were delighted to welcome over 130 visitors to St Marie’s on Tuesday 7^th December (possibly a record attendance for St Marie’s since 2014) for our annual Christmas Carol Concert – the unofficial start to Christmas in Widnes.

Guests enjoyed free mulled wine, hot drinks and mince pies (kindly donated by Ged, the Manager at Tesco) before enjoying a wonderful performance from The St Wilfred’s Parish Choir, led by the always amazing Frances Atherton.

The packed to capacity room sounded magnificent and everyone joined in to share the Christmas Spirit. We are incredibly grateful to Frances and her Choir for making the evening such a special event. We’re also very grateful to Bishop Rawsthorne who joined us to provide a Christmas blessing.

The St Marie’s Heritage Group did a fabulous job decorating the Altar & tree. Huge thanks to everyone who came along and joined in – we hope you enjoyed it as much as we did.

Finally…. The Carol Concert marked the end of Maeve Moran’s involvement with the St Marie’s Heritage Group. Maeve has been an incredible help to the group over the past 5 years and we will miss her more than you can imagine. Thank you Maeve! Huge thanks to her husband Dan too for all his help.

Please note that all available places for our upcoming Christmas Carol Concert with the Parish Choir of St Wilfrid have now been reserved. Places have been distributed on a first come first served basis. We apologise to anyone who was hoping to attend the event but had not yet booked a place.

There is always a limit to the number of people who can visit St Marie’s at any one time, but given the current situation with the pandemic, we need to be especially careful.

Please do not attend if you have not reserved a place.

Huge thanks to everyone who has booked their place. We look forward to welcoming you to St Marie’s on Tuesday 7^th December. The first Carol will be sung at 7pm. The building will be open from 6pm.

Kind regards,

Matthew Roberts