Moorlands church flower festivals attract vistors from far and wide over the Bank Holiday weekend

THREE church flower festivals attracted many visitors from all across the Moorlands and from all parts of the country over the Bank Holiday weekend.

The three day festivals were held at St Mary and St Laurence Church in Cauldon, St Luke’s Church in Onecote along with Onecote Methodist Chapel.

The event at Onecote Methodist Chapel was to celebrate its 200th anniversary.

At Cauldon, organisers had chosen the theme ‘Colours in Songs’ for this year’s event. These included

Yellow Rose of Texas; Purple Rain; Greensleeves; Scarlet Ribbons and I Can Sing a Rainbow.”

A spokesman said: “This is our first flower festival for three years.

“There has been no money coming in during this time as all our fundraising activities had to be cancelled due to the pandemic.

“It is good to get back and we have welcomed a steady stream of visitors during the three days.”

St Luke’s Church in Onecote also staged their annual flower festival on Saturday, Sunday and Monday.

The theme for this year’s festival was ‘films.’ Arrangements included The Wizard of Oz; 101 Dalmatians; Encanto; Footloose; Alice in Wonderland and The Full Monty.

A spokesman said: “We have welcomed a lot of visitors during the three days. All the arrangements have been done by local people which makes it special.”

On Sunday night at 7.30pm a Songs of Praise service was held.

Onecote Methodist Chapel held a festival to celebrate the premises 200th anniversary.

The original church was built in 1822 by John Allen, a local preacher from Onecote. In 1934, a porch was added, the gift of Misses H and E A Deaville.

Work on the new extension started in the Spring of 1955, the ground was given by James Simpson of Loxley Cottage in Onecote.

Owing to the marshy nature of the ground it was found necessary to ‘float’ the new building on a concrete raft.

Beside the flower arrangements, which included birth, family memories and the Queen’s Jubilee, there were several pictures of weddings held at the chapel along with displays of record books on view for visitors to study.

A spokesman said: “We had many visitors to the chapel during the three days and the festival proved a big success.

“One 82-year-old woman, who worked at Woolworths in Leek and came to the chapel in her younger days, hired a taxi from her home in Skegness to come and visit us.

“We also held an anniversary service in the chapel on Sunday morning which was really well attended.”