Spotlight on Old St Michael’s
This Saturday St rath residents have the chance to see how members of the community in Crieff are creating a tranquil greenspace in the centre of town.
The grounds of Old St Michael’s Church will be open as part of the national Doors Open Day programme. Blackford Fiddlers will be on hand to provide a musical backdrop and author Jess Smith and local star Murphy the horse will also be in attendance.
The afternoon is also a chance to learn more about the history of the site and hear about ideas for taking it forward.
In recent years volunteers, known as the Friends of Old St Michael’s, have been looking after the town centre amenity. They have worked hard to tidy up the grounds of the historic site, which had become an overgrown eyesore, with the deteriorating building regularly being broken into and misused.
Peter Littwin, chair of the Friends of Old St Michael’s, said the group was gaining more volunteers with a variety of skills, which was helping greatly in building on the early success of maintaining the site. He told the Herald: “More people use the space now and sit on the bench we have put in. And we get a lot of plaudits when we are working there -people come and tell us we are doing a good job and that makes it all worthwhile.
“I feel we are actually getting somewhere now.
“We have been custodians of the grounds for three seasons but have more or less been custodians of the building as well. Very early on there was a real problem with vandalism and people were breaking into the property. We have made it secure and have not had any issues with anyone getting in for over a year.”
This is the first time Old St Michael’s has been involved in Doors Open Day. Peter added: “The main aim of Saturday is to promote the historical significance of the site. Historian Colin Mayall has been working with us and we hope he will be in attendance. His blogs are great references. We will also have on show the map of all the graves; who’s buried where. We’d like to show the history of the site, the history of the building, the issues there have been more recently leading to us trying to save the site and the building.”
And Peter would like to see the whole community getting involved with taking Old St Michael’s forward. The churchyard contains memorial stones to Crieff families and the ruins of the first Parish School ( 1593). The Friends of St Michael’s group is proposing to build a memorial garden to those who are buried there and have been awarded a grant of £ 4000 from Strathearn Decides, which initially will be used to create a good path so that the churchyard is accessible to all.
Visitors to the open day will have the chance to give their ideas on what they would like to see in the memorial garden.
I feel we are actually getting somewhere now