Thirty heritage specialists travelled to Retford from across the UK to listen to fourteen presentations at this year’s national Christian Heritage Conference, held on Friday 8th March 2019 at The Well.
Organisations involved in the development and delivery of heritage-based activities met to exchange best practice and form future partnerships.
Because of the local story of the Mayflower Pilgrims, and the importance of that story to the area in and around Bassetlaw, North Nottinghamshire, Bassetlaw Christian Heritage started the annual conference in 2016 to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the death of local reformer Thomas Helwys. It is now firmly established on the national heritage calendar.
Local historian, and author of the book From Here We Changed The World, Adrian Gray, led the day, focusing on the importance of the local people. There then followed a series of presentations by the following organisations:
- John Haden: the ARIES project – writing books with schools
- Angela Meads: Bookworm a practical guide to publishing, and marketing a book
- Jason Mordan: Senior Historic Buildings Adviser – Nottinghamshire County Council
- Steve Weston and David Milner: The Fuller Baptist Church in Kettering
- Paul Howitt-Cowan: West Lindsey Churches Festival
- David Minn – Essex Puritan Conference
- Isabelle Richards: Bassetlaw Christian Heritage – using social media
- Julie Obermeyer: William Booth Museum – reaching new audiences including schools
- Chris Hill: My Primitive Methodists ancestry website team
- Jenny Carpenter: Epworth Old Rectory – Using anniversaries – Susannah Wesley’s 350th anniversary
- Adrian Gray: the wider use of Facebook and SpeakerNet
- Emma Tatlow: Mayflower 400 US Connections Project Manager
- Tony Francis: Harwich and Essex Christian Heritage
- Joshua Kellard: Cambridge Christian Heritage
- Gerard Pontier: Pilgrims & Prophets on the way forward for the network
This event continues to attract national interest in Retford and the next event is being planned for Friday 6th March 2020.
Bassetlaw Christian Heritage 