Guests fill chapel for chat and tour

LIZ Harrison (M People Recruitment), left and Angela Kirkham (Dr Kershaw's Hospice)

4 More Image(s) In Gallery

BUSINESS people attending the latest Professional Oldham networking social event had a guided tour of Oldham's historic George Street Chapel.

Professional Oldham was launched earlier this year to provide quality, enjoyable networking opportunities for local firms and professionals without the pressure for referrals or sales.

The group is partnered by Oldham Business Edge magazine, published quarterly by the Oldham Chronicle.

Guests at the George Street Chapel event were shown around the Grade-II listed building, which dates from 1815 and closed for worship in 1990.

It has been renovated and turned into an events and heritage centre by the Age UK Oldham charity.

The building is understood to have been the country's first purpose-built independent Methodist chapel and includes a beautiful organ and wooden upper gallery. Built on a slope, it also has a school room and rented dwellings below the chapel floor, which have been restored.

With support from organisations including the Heritage Lottery Fund, the Andrew Lloyd Webber Challenge Fund and English Heritage, repairs and alterations were carried out between February, 2013 and October, 2014.

Today, the venue is available for a range of business, social, education and heritage events.

Robbie MacDonald, business editor of the Oldham Evening Chronicle and Oldham Business Edge magazine, gave a welcome speech at the event, which was sponsored by Limetree Public Relations.

Limetree director Bridget Batty spoke about the business' development over the past ten years, and guests watched a short film highlighting her work with a range of clients including a number of Oldham firms.

Launch

Mrs Batty is also a member of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR) and sits on the institute's North-West board.

She has helped to launch Professional Oldham alongside Robbie MacDonald, Suzanne Wright of Pearson Solicitors and Financial Advisers, Stephanie Doherty of Caremark Oldham and Angela Higham of Dr Kershaw's Hospice.

The group's first event was a wine-tasting evening in the summer hosted by writer Simon Woods at the Naked Bean cafe near Oldham Library.

To register your interest in future Professional Oldham events, contact Angela Higham by emailing: professionaloldham@outlook.com.

* More photos from the event, plus other news and pictures from Oldham business community social events, will appear in the winter edition of Oldham Business Edge magazine.