Tickets from:
Heather – heather.barker10@btopenworld.com
Jan – janmpayne@hotmail.com
Save Our Shirley Library – Meeting Friday 24 May 2024
Shirley Library is under threat of closure from Croydon Council.
We need to support this valuable social and community asset and preserve an iconic art deco building.
The library is Shirley’s only social hub available free to all, regardless of age or background.
Users of the library include young people doing Duke of Edinburgh awards, toddlers learning to read, children on holiday doing the Reading Challenge, older people from one of the many retirement homes, young people doing their homework on the computers. It provides:
- access via the Libraries Consortium to 350 branches, 23 local authorities and access to over 7 million books.
- support for people preparing for their driving test or citizenship test and for exams in general.
- computer courses and support with IT problems for many who cannot afford to have a computer at home and offers a space for study and reflection.
- children’s craft sessions and adult events, such as taster courses on deaf language.
- advice on many of the social issues that affect people, such as homelessness, domestic violence, unemployment.
There will be a meeting at Shirley Library on Friday 24th May at 1.00pm to discuss our next actions, everyone is welcome.
We need to act now by spreading the word to friends and family.
A group of concerned residents have branded themselves Friends of Shirley Library and have started a movement to save our library.
There is a petition which can be signed in Shirley Library or online https://chng.it/Ww96qMBX6y
If you want to make contact with the Friends of Shirley Library, please email your name, email address, and telephone number to spra.comms@email.com. By so doing, you agree to your details being passed to others similarly interested.
You can also help by emailing our local councillors –
Shirley Jumble Trail – Saturday 25 May 2024
Sign up to be a Seller!
It’s the return of our jumble trail after we saw 80+ sellers at our last trail. It’s a fuss-free way to have a spring clean and help a charity. Organised by locals for everyone.
This year, there will be a £5 entry fee which goes to London charity Caysh, supporting young people age 16-25 in need of homes since 1981.
Where
We’ve made the trail stops closer together this year to make it easier to navigate and increase footfall. If your sale is within this zone, you can participate.
Why?
A jumble trail is a fantastic way to bring a community together whilst helping the environment by finding new homes for old things.
How to get involved:
Step 1. Join the Facebook group for all event info, and to promote your own sale in your front yard/garden or team up with a neighbour!
Step 2. Sign up as a seller using this form, and tell us what you’ll be selling on the day
Step 3. Spread the word! You can share our posts from the Facebook group, and we will provide you with posters for you to print and put up near your sale address.
Shirley Neighbourhood Care May Fair – 11 May 2024
The Feel Good Choir will be performing and running workshops at 12pm and 2pm and the children’s face painting will be available between 12-2pm.
We hope to see you there!
St Mildred’s Organ Restoration Project
St Mildred’s Church, Addiscombe is in the process of refurbishing its organ. St Mildred’s has a very strong choral tradition and refurbishment of the organ will help this continue to flourish, in addition to being used to lead the worship and for recitals and concerts. In particular, the junior choir, for children aged 7 to 18 years, provides musical education and singing tuition, free of charge, to local children and provides them the opportunity to experience the challenges and sense of community of singing in a choir. St Mildred’s also operates an Organ Scholarship scheme, supporting local young musicians who are learning the organ.
The current West Organ was built by NP Mander in 1959, replacing a smaller organ by Lewis that had been purchased second-hand by the church when it opened in 1932. The magnificent copper facade, with pipes of up to 16 feet in length, is thought to be the first of its kind in the country and this will be retained as part of the new organ. As was common in post-war England, the West Organ was built from disparate components and pipework recycled from older instruments (including the Lewis organ it replaced). Much of it appeared to be Victorian, and by the end of 2017 it had reached the end of its useful life and was no longer playable.
The current Project involves the replacement of virtually all of the West Organ pipes, sound boards, wind supply and all the other electrical and mechanical components required for the organ to work. Nearly all of the pipework for the refurbishment comes from a local redundant organ, built by Lewis & Co in 1906 for St Paul’s URC, Croham Road, South Croydon, and one of only two in Croydon (and only 16 in Surrey) to be awarded a Historic Organ Certificate for its excellent pipework.
All the Lewis pipework has been retained (other than the facade pipes which remained in St Paul’s URC) and used to form the core of the new organ. This important piece of Croydon’s heritage has been preserved to speak again for future generations.
There is much more information on the project available on our website at www.stmildredsorganproject.com, where donations can also be made. Details of services, recitals and concerts are available on our main church website at www.stmildredschurch.org.uk.
On 16th November 2024, Olivier Latry, the world-famous titular organist of the Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Paris, will give the Inaugural Concert on the new organ. Tickets and further information are available at www.stmildredsorganproject.com
Finally, we are still fundraising for the Project and there is a great opportunity to be part of the legacy through our “Adopt-a-pipe” Scheme, where individual pipes can be adopted from as little as £5. You may wish to adopt a pipe for yourself, as a gift or in memory of a loved one. Full details are on our website here: www.stmildredsorganproject.com/adoptapipe