This year’s Houghton Feast weekend was wonderful. We began with the opening ceremony on Friday night at which our very own Gilpin Singers choir sang two numbers:

Then on Saturday we had our craft and produce market welcoming some new traders – the Northumberland Sausage company went down very well! This was our most successful market yet so a big thank you to all who helped to make it run so smoothly and to those of you who came along:

And a first for us this year, we sold copies of our first CD, Houghton through the Seasons featuring our liturgical choir, the Gilpin Singers, our Music Group and our Hand-bell ringers. Copies are available to buy for £10:

On Sunday we had our Houghton Feast Civic Service at which we welcomed the Ven Peter Robinson, Archdeacon of Lindisfarne as our preacher followed by our famous Feast lunch in the Kepier Hall.

On Sunday evening we held our Community Hymn Singing Service which this year celebrated the work of Christians in Houghton-le-Spring. We were each encouraged to write on a small cut out of a person how we help in our community and put them all together on a board – it was moving to see how much people do in this area to serve others and share the love of Christ:

A huge thank you to the Next 900 Team, Anne Goodman and Stan Morson from the Kepier Hall, Carole Cunningham, Christine Britcliffe and all the volunteers who made this year’s celebrations such a success. Don’t forget to come along to our music concert this Thursday night at 7.30pm and our Ceilidh on Friday 9th October at 7.30pm.