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NEWCASTLE Cathedral has revealed special plans to mark its historic transformation, which is due to be unveiled this summer following the completion of its £6m National Lottery Heritage Fund project, Common Ground in Sacred Space.
In April, the 900-year-old landmark will deliver two exclusive ‘Pay As You Feel’ online panel discussion events, exploring the research, the work and the people making the monumental regeneration happen.
A time capsule appeal – entitled Back to the Future – is also under way, encouraging members of the public to get in touch with their items and objects to help tell Tyneside folk of the future about the city’s past.
“This heritage project has been many years in the planning, and since January 2020, the building has been sensitively transformed, inside and out,” says Lindy Gilliland, the Cathedral’s Common Ground in Sacred Space project manager.
“Newcastle Cathedral belongs to the city, and so it’s only right that local residents play a part in the redevelopment and get to take a glimpse behind the scenes – even though we’re not ready to open our doors just yet.”
The first online event, ‘Turning a Dream into Reality’, will be held on April 7 at 6.30pm via Zoom.
It will bring together an expert panel including Jane Kennedy (Cathedral Architect), Dave Heslop (Cathedral Archaeologist) and the Very Revd Geoff Miller, Dean of Newcastle.
Sarah Stewart OBE, former chief executive of the NewcastleGateshead Initiative and High Sheriff of Tyne and Wear, will be running proceedings and looking into how a spiritual space is being enhanced for 21st century visitors.
Tickets for this online event are available, with a minimum fee of £1 to attend, via the Cathedral’s website: newcastlecathedral.org.uk/ panel-events.
The second online event, ‘Protecting our Regional Treasures’, on April 28, at 6.30pm, explores how the project has been delivered despite the pandemic; the challenges and surprises uncovered, and how important it is to protect this historic building at the heart of Newcastle’s heritage.
The panellists are Anthony Short (Site Foreman at Historic Property Restoration Ltd), Dr David Carrington (Founder and Managing Director at conservation firm Skillington Workshop) and Dan Rose (Designer and Director at Raskl – a company based in Newcastle’s Ouseburn Valley that has created the Cathedral’s new liturgical furniture).
These key partners will talk about some of the issues faced in protecting the Cathedral’s history. Tickets will be made available on March 31, at 10am.
At both events, in addition to the panel discussion, there will be an opportunity for attendees to ask questions of the experts.
The time capsule will be buried not long afterwards, marking the culmination of major building works and the start of a new chapter for the Cathedral. The enclosed items will be an encapsulation of the time they were buried, providing a snapshot of life in 2021.
Submissions can be made as a physical object, on paper, or stored in a digital format. The hope is to display a selection of these – including photographs of buried items – in an accompanying exhibition at the Cathedral later this year.
Alina Trewhitt, Learning and Activities Officer, says: “We want to capture the spirit and diversity of the city. People’s ideas can be personal to themselves and their family or might be about an important event that has happened in the North East.
“For example, you could write a story, a poem, a blog, take pictures, make something, draw, record an audio clip, or maybe send us something you already own. “The list is endless.”
Alina continues: “Be inventive with your memories and ideas. Our time capsule is small, but your idea can be big.”
Instructions on how to submit an item or object towards the Back to the Future time capsule can be found at newcastlecathedral.org.uk/timecapsule
Visit the cathedral’s website: newcastlecathedral.org.uk.
Follow @NewcastleCathedral on Facebook and Instagram and @ nclcathedral on Twitter and use #NewcastleCathedral.
Don’t miss our Memory Lane local history website that’s packed with archive photographs and has an easy-to-use picture colourisation tool.