Star date: 7th September 2014

FROM PUBS TO CHURCHES, ORGANS TO HALLS – SALFORD HERITAGE OPENS UP

Heritage Open Days
Thursday 11th – Sunday 14th September free

This year's annual Heritage Open Days sees another great array of normally hidden Salford places welcome people with special events and exhibitions. There's tours of Peel Green's Theatre Organ Heritage Centre, Weaste Cemetery and the Working Class Movement Library, plus a stroll around Salford's old pubs and breweries.

Meanwhile the city's stunning old churches open up their pews and carved panels, and at Ordsall Hall you can wear the garb of rich Tudors or knight's armour. Everything is free and there's a selfie photo challenge at all venues.

Full details here...

National Heritage Open Days this year runs from Thursday 11th until Sunday 14th September with an array of great venues opening their doors to the public free of charge.

To celebrate the 20th anniversary of Heritage Open Days there's a photo
challenge, inviting people to take a selfie at a favourite venue or with a favourite artefact and post it on the Facebook Selfie Wall – see here https://www.facebook.com/hodselfiewall

Here's the official list of Salford events and venues...

Lancastrian Theatre Organ Trust Theatre Organ Heritage Centre and Museum
2a Alexandra Road, Peel Green, Eccles M30 7HJ
Opening Times: Friday: 11am -3pm/Saturday: 11am-3pm
 
This hidden gem has a reproduction of 1920s cinema complete with 1927 Wurlitzer Organ, plus a museum of the Theatre Organ. There will be frequent guided tours inside the organ, continuous free theatre organ concerts, music and old silent films. Also learn about early electricity, telephones, fog horns, local history and many other related topics in the Museum. There's also a bring and buy stall and a `vintage recordings stall' with `vinyl LP 12" records'. There's a maximum of ten people per tour/session

Church of St Mary Magdalene
Westbourne Road, Winton M30 9GJ
Opening Times: Saturday 10am-4pm/Sunday 10am -4pm

Beautiful Grade II listed Church building built 1913-14 by the architect Mr R.T. Beckett. As part of its Centenary Year of Foundation and the start of the Commemorations for the 100 years since the start of the First World War, there'll be floral displays reflecting life in 1914. On Saturday there's a Food and Drink Festival in the Church Hall, which is across from the Church.

Pubs and Breweries of Inner Salford
New Oxford, Bexley Square, Chapel Street, M3 6DB
The tour starts Saturday and Sunday at 3pm 

This is a guided walking tour of closed pubs and breweries of inner Salford, visiting the locations of some of Salford's beery history and putting them into a modern context. The tour, hosted by CAMRA, will also be trying to answer the question `Where have all our pubs gone?' The tour lasts around ninety minutes, will cover about two miles and finishes in a `live' pub.

St Thomas's Parish Church
Pendleton Ford Lane, Pendleton M6 6EP
Opening Times: Saturday 11am-4pm/Sunday 11am-4pm

This imposing church is a Grade II listed building and there's a tour of the bell tower including its eight bells. There will also be a display of photographs and other artifacts depicting the church's past history and organ recitals plus WW1 memorabilia. There is a children's play area in the church. There is a maximum of eight people per tour/session.

Working Class Movement Library
51 Crescent, M5 4WX
Opening Times:  Saturday 11am-3pm Tours at 11:30am, 12:30pm, 1:30pm, 2:30pm

Behind-the-scenes tour of the stunning collections of Salford's unique Library which houses rare books from working class history, posters, banners, badges, leaflets and loads more. There is a maximum of eight people per tour/session and note that there are lots of stairs.

St Andrew's Church
Chadwick Road, Eccles M30 0NZ
Opening Times: Saturday 1030am-3pm. Tours at 11am and 2pm

Grade II listed church built in 1879 which contains twenty stained glass windows, three windows by Charles Kempe, and fifty examples of decorative Victorian stonework including angel corbels and capitals decorated with foliage and animals. There's an exhibition currently running about men listed on church's World War One memorial and also a general exhibition about World War One which includes a mock up of a trench and dressing up materials.
 

Weaste Cemetery Guided Tour
Cemetery Road, Eccles New Road, Weaste, M5 5WG
Sunday 11am-12:30

Guided tour of the city's top Grade II listed Victorian cemetery and some Grade II listed monuments. Weaste Cemetery is the final resting place of Sir Charles Halle, Mark Addy, Joseph Brotherton, Eddie Colman and lots more notable Salford people. The free tour is suitable for wheelchairs and pushchairs but there's no toilets. Meet at the War Memorial at the end of the main drive. No need to book.

St Mark's Church, Worsley
Worsley Brow, Walkden Road, Worsley, M28 2WH
Opening Times: Friday 2pm-4pm/Saturday 10am-12noon/Sunday 1:30pm-3:30pm

Home of 'the clock that strikes thirteen', this Grade I parish church, designed by George Gilbert Scott, is regarded as one of his most successful in achieving the geometrical Gothic design of the 13th century. An exterior flanked with gargoyles, richly carved buttresses and spires. The interior features original oak pews, carved panels, twelve windows of the Saints and a decorative limestone font, while the churchyard has a memorial of Sergeant Major Williams, a survivor of the charge of the Light Brigade.

Ordsall Hall
Ordsall Lane, M5 3AN
Opening Times: Sunday 1pm-4pm. Tours at 1:30pm, 2pm, 3pm

This fab Tudor mansion features some special themed tours for the Heritage event. At 1:30pm and 3pm there's a behind the scenes exploration of the Hall, getting to know some of the characters who have lived there over the years, and at 2pm a 16th Century gardener explains the joys of cultivation from the 16th and 17th centuries. There's also hands-on exhibitions for kids who can try on knights' armour and Tudor robes. Note that you've got to pay for parking - £2 for up to three hours, £5 for over three hours.

St Mary's Church, Ellenbrook
Ellenbrook Road, Ellenbrook, Worsley, M28 1FR
Opening Times Friday 10am-4pm/Saturday 10am-4pm/Sunday Service at 9:30am then open until 2pm

This site has been a place of worship for almost 800 years and the present church has many Georgian and Victorian features. Over the weekend there will be an art display, craft stall and craft activities including glass painting and engraving. Local schools and village associations are also putting on floral displays.

Higher Crumpsall and Higher Broughton Synagogue
Bury Old Road, Cheetham Hill, M7 4PX
Opening Time: Sunday 2pm-4pm

Built in 1928, the Synagogue is a fine example of Art Deco architecture with exhibitions, and oral and written history of Jewish people's migration to Manchester and Salford and their experiences since.

St. Clements Church and Community Centre
Groves Avenue, Ordsall M5 3LQ
Opening Times: Thursday 12noon-5pm/Friday 12noon-5pm/Saturday 10am-5pm/Sunday 12noon-5pm

A four day exhibition of Weddings Around The World, looking at different wedding traditions, ritual, beliefs and sharing experiences from past and present. Weddings costumes of at least six different countries will be on display. There will be demonstrations of different dances and tasting sessions of different foods which are associated with weddings.

Check www.heritageopendays.org.uk for last-minute changes and further details.

* Main photo shows St Thomas's Parish Church Pendleton