THE first in a short series of free organ recitals took place at St Mary’s Parish Church Barnard Castle, last week.
The performances are held each Wednesday lunchtime at the church and feature visiting guest performers.
The series kicked off with a programme by British concert organist Edward Taylor, who is currently assistant organist and director of the senior girls’ choir at Carlisle Cathedral.
His recent solo recitals include performances at Westminster Abbey and Ely Cathedral, while plans are being put in place for a visit to St Patrick’s Cathedral, New York, plus other venues in the USA. His programme for St Mary’s included music by Bossi, Blair, Howells and Vierne.
This week’s recital takes place today, Wednesday, July 18, and features Andrew Christer, director of music and organist at St John the Evangelist, Darlington.
The series concludes next week (July 25) with the visit of Nick Wise, from Beverley Minster. All performances start at 12.30pm and admission is free.
![A COUNTY councillor is backing a campaign to get a pedestrian crossing in Staindrop. Frustrated parish councillors in the village summoned their county council representative Cllr George Richardson to their latest meeting to discuss several issues, including the call for a safe way to cross the A688. Earlier this year their request for a crossing was turned down by the county council’s highways officers. Parish council chairman Jonothan Raper described the reasons for the refusal as “spurious” and called on Cllr Richardson to support their campaign. He added: “One of the arguments they made was there is no clear line of desire when they studied the village – well this isn’t a clear line of desire because there isn’t a crossing, people cross whenever they can. “When the lollipop person was there, one of the things I noticed was people would walk all the way down to the lollipop person to cross the road to go to the shop or to go to the school.” He added a problem of parking at the primary school is exacerbated because people are too afraid to walk their children across the road. Cllr Richardson said he had supported previous attempts for a crossing point with the first being made about 15 years ago. He added: “We went fairly well down the road with that and they looked into it. The only recommended place was where the bus stop is and to get the visibility splays, people on the other side of the road would lose their parking. “That didn’t go down well so it just died a death.” Cllr Raper said he suspected the real reason for the officers’ refusal was the cost of installing a crossing. He added that much of the cost could be recovered from savings made on not having to employ a lollipop patrol. Cllr Raper said: “A lollipop person only provides a benefit of crossing for three hours of the day. You are getting 21 extra hours of crossing time [with a pedestrian crossing].” Cllr Richardson said he would raise the issue with the county council’s cabinet member for highways, Cllr John Shuttleworth.](https://teesdalemercury.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/georgeR-120x86.jpg)
