175

We are not churchgoers, but we have friends who sing in a church choir. The Choral director and organist is a real enthusiast, and the church is one of the very few which has a choral evensong once a month. And it has developed a “come and sing” policy.

So we went along.

The service was a celebration of the foundation of St Marks church 175 years ago. The church lay close to the eastern entrance to Worsley New Hall, home of the Earl of Ellesmere. The Earl commissioned George Gilbert Scott to design the church. The M60 motorway now separates the church from the site of the Hall ( it fell into disuse and was demolished after WW2), and it is being developed by the Royal Horticultural Society for its fifth garden, RHS Bridgewater. The church now stands adjacent to junction 13, it’s tall steeple a landmark for people travelling on the motorway.

The singing ? We enjoyed it, the church has a fantastic acoustic. Mind you, Brahms, Bruckner and Stanford are way beyond my current abilities, so it was a definite overstretch for me. But that’s how you learn.