Bury church to celebrate 150th anniversary with a free community led concert

St Peter’s Church in Bury is going to celebrate its 150th anniversary this September, providing a free concert and positive space for the community to come together.

The church has already been celebrating the milestone throughout the year, first in June with the Queen’s Jubilee celebrations and it plans to continue with two more events during autumn. 

Rev Simon Watkinson, Vicar for St Peter’s Church, said: “During the event we're really just looking back over what have been markers in our history, and for churches often that is partly in music.  

“We knew that music is something that brings people together and something that people enjoy.  

“So, we thought ‘Why not make the music life of the church the feature of this event?’” 

During the pandemic, the church’s organ turned 100 years old, and with the celebration of the church stand in Bury, Simon hopes to also commemorate the organ’s history.  

The celebratory concert will run in collaboration with organist Melanie Plumley, and the Radcliffe Male Voice Choir, conducted by Cath Hilton, with future collaborators still to be confirmed. 

With this concert, the church wants to help bring the community together after the rough years of the pandemic which have seen local groups and clubs distanced themselves. 

Rev Watkinson commented that it is important for the local Bury community to use the church and other open spaces to regain what was lost during the pandemic, he said: “Things are usually more in the centre of Bury but this part of town doesn't have an abundance of other public space.  

“I think St Peter's is an important space for people in this community and further afield, for community events, celebrations, for worship, for toddler groups, and for other things that we happen to run from here. 

“We hope, looking to the future, that we might be able to continue to improve and maintain this space so that it can be even more of a blessing to the people who live in or around this community.” 

The event will feature a time of contemplation about the church’s history and accomplishments in Bury since its construction in 1862, and displacement to its present site on St Peter’s Road in 1872. 

Bury Council will be present to support the church and the concert, the St Peter’s team encourages any other local representative to join in. 

However, the church mostly hopes to get as many people from the public as possible, as when it revealed the plans for the event to the community, there was a strong positive response from those who have a personal history with St Peter’s. Mr. Watkinson said: “We are hoping to see all sorts of people who've had a connection to St. Peter's either present or in the past.  

“The initial response towards the event has been really positive with all sorts of people saying things like 'I was married there' or 'I can remember going to Scouts there' or things like that.  

“Hopefully all that goodwill will mean people will come out and celebrate the history.” 

The anniversary event will be starting at 7:30 on the 17th of September, tickets are available through the church’s website.