Diocesan Advisory Committees - St Peter's Church, Nottingham, England on-line magazine

Experts visit St Peter's

National Conference of Diocesan Advisory Committees

Last month we reported a planned visit to St Peter’s by church experts attending the National Conference of Diocesan Advisory Committees, this year based at the University of Nottingham and hosted by Southwell Diocese. On Wednesday 8th September over 130 people descended on St Peter’s for an hour and a half, arriving in coaches at precisely timed intervals. We were one of four churches visited that day, but also where they had lunch. This complex logistical operation went very smoothly, kept to the tight time schedule, and proved to be very successful. A number of St Peter’s people were available to greet the guests and answer questions. As their specialist interests varied widely (architecture, history, stonework, timber, monuments, stained glass, organs…) some of their questions were very testing!

Delegates gave every sign of enjoying their visit to the church and St Peter’s Centre, inspecting monuments, ringing the bells, playing the organ and delving behind hangings to see things normally hidden from view. They were very fulsome with their thanks as they boarded coaches - two minutes ahead of schedule - off to the next church.

We gave every visitor a copy of our planned new leaflet about the church, which includes "A Walk round St Peter’s" highlighting features of interest and importance. The opportunity to test out this leaflet on 130 experts was not to be missed, though to be fair there was not a lot of time for a thorough evaluation.

This new leaflet is part of a project by a small group to up-date and up-grade some of the literature available to visitors to the church. The ‘walk’ is illustrated using a new cut-away drawing by David Marshall which can be seen on the Guides page. So far only a small number have been printed for trial purposes - and these are in black and white. We do have a coloured version, but costs of reproduction are high for small quantities. Our hope (if the PCC agrees) is to print in sufficient numbers to have a very low unit cost and make them available cheaply or even free. There are a small number of black and white leaflets at the back of church, and a colour version on display. Any comments will be valued before we go to print.

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