Heritage weekend at historic chapel will celebrate Mansfield's creative past

The Old Meeting House Unitarian Chapel, on Stockwell Gate, dates back to 1702, which makes it the oldest non-conformist place of worship in Nottinghamshire.

Every year, it takes part in a national festival of history and culture, supported by thousands of organisations and volunteers.

This year’s theme, over the weekend of Saturday and Sunday, September 9 and 10, is ‘Creativity Unwrapped’, so the chapel has decided to focus on novels, poetry and art that have helped to shape Mansfield.

The free event will also allow visitors to have a look round the beautiful chapel, with its Victorian interior and spectacular stained-glass windows.

"We are keen to promote Mansfield in the wider community to show what an interesting area we live in, ” said co-ordinator Viv Brown. “Our open days are always very popular.

"There will be talks, displays, activities and a guided heritage walk around the town on the Saturday afternoon. There will also be a fascinating display, based on a heritage project called ‘Mansfield Townscape Revived’, which will feature artwork by students.”

The chapel, which won huge acclaim last year for the way it organised help, through donations, for Ukraine, opens its doors on the Saturday morning with children’s activities.

The weekend will be formally launched by Neil Pledger, local photographer, content creator and heritage podcaster, who will give an illustrated talk entitled ‘Footprints Of Mansfield Past And Present’, connecting the town’s history to the modern world.

One of the chapel’s former ministers, the Rev Derek Smith, now 94 years old, will give a talk on another, the Rev Ottwell Binns, who served at the Old Meeting House between 1920 and 1927 and was a prolific author, sometimes under the pseudonym of Ben Bolt.

There will be displays about the work of Sarah Johanna Williams, a young 19th century poet from Mansfield, and of Francis Everton, a pseudonym for Francis Stokes, boss of Mansfield engineering firm Stokes Castings Ltd, who wrote mystery novels in the 1920s and 1930s.

The weekend, which will also include an origami demonstration and a stained-glass window workshop, will conclude on the Sunday afternoon with a celebration service in the chapel, followed by refreshments.