Holy Trinity Blythburgh
The Cathedral of the Marshes
The Cathedral of the Marshes
The Cathedral of the Marshes
The ever-popular Blythburgh café and minimarket – the village hub – is back in full swing on Friday 26 April: 10.30-12. Thereafter, on the last Friday of every month.
We’re holding our Annual Parochial Church Meeting (APCM) on Tuesday 21 May at 7pm in the church. Meryl Doney is standing down as Church Warden so we’re looking for a new recruit. If you’re on the Church Electoral Roll you can vote on matters at the APCM.
On Saturday 25 May at 7.30pm, enjoy an evening of uplifting choral music entitled ‘Where’er You Walk’ with Voxcetera Chamber Choir. The concert will open with a celebration of sacred music spanning 400 years. The second half features secular songs on a theme of journeys and travel, including arrangements of folk and pop as well as the beautifully haunting “The Long Road” by Latvian composer Ēriks Ešenvalds. Book tickets at www.voxcetera.co.uk
This is due to take place Sunday 26 May at 2.30 -4pm. The afternoon will focus on the life and work of Ronald Blythe, author of the best-selling Akenfield. Blythburgh resident Malcolm Doney – who met “Ronnie” and wrote his obituary for the Church Times– will talk about this remarkable man and his links with Blythburgh, Benjamin Britten, Peter Pears and other Suffolk luminaries. This will be followed by tea and cakeand a showing of the film Akenfield, Sir Peter Hall’s elegiac portrait of Suffolk life, based on Blythe’s masterwork.
Visitors throng to Blythburgh to visit the ‘Cathedral of the Marshes’. Almost every Thursday at 11 am they are met by Blythburgh resident Colin Huggins who offers a knowledgeable, free, tour of the church. Last month, Colin welcomed his 1,000th visitor! We celebrated this milestone with tea, cake, and a special tour for members of the village.
We know that a story which draws visitors to the church is one of the spookier Suffolk legends: Black Shuck, the dark giant dog who’s said to have invaded the church with calamitous results. It was no surprise, then, to be asked if we would tell the story again for American broadcaster NBC who were shooting a feature about Arthur Conan Doyle and the Hound of the Baskervilles. Colin Huggins agreed to stand in the TV lights to spill the beans. The show was broadcast at Halloween. Colin – who’s rapidly becoming a media star – was then asked for a similar interview for Greatest Hits Radio.
A different kind of media interest then arose, when – in November – the upscale magazine Country Living hired the Blythburgh Church for a photo-shoot featuring, er, console tables. The spectacular backdrop served its purpose, though Black Shuck failed to show. . .
