Chester Cathedral has been chosen as the venue for this year’s National Harvest service, which will be taking place this coming Sunday on 25 September, and will include a farmers market.
The National Harvest service is organised by ‘Love British Food’ and was first held in Westminster Abbey in 2013. Since then, it has been held in a different part of the country each year and this year’s honour of hosting the event falls to Chester.
To mark the hand-over to Chester, a Harvest Torch was given to the city, who will act as custodians of the torch until it passed on to the next hosting location. It is a specially commissioned sculpture depicting harvest’s natural bounty.
In the weeks leading up to the service, the torch has toured the diocese as part of a roadshow and series of events organised by a group of people headed by Revd Anne Lawson, Vicar of The Cross Country Parishes of Acton, Church Minshull, Worleston and Wettenhall and Chaplain to the Cheshire Agricultural Society. Photos of some of the places where the torch has been displayed can be seen on our Facebook page.
More destinations are planned below
On Saturday 24 September the Harvest Torch will be visiting the following places.
• The Apple Barn, Sawpit Lane, Dunham Massey, WA14 53J. Harvest Torch arriving at 11.30am.
• Great Budworth Ice Cream Farm, New Westage Farm, CW9 6ND. Harvest Torch arriving at 12.30pm.
• Chestnut Meats, Longfields Farm, Nantwich, CW5 8NF. Harvest Torch arriving at 1.45pm.
• Reaseheath College, Nantwich, CW5 6DF. Harvest Torch arriving at 2.30pm.
The main event takes place at Chester Cathedral, commencing with a farmers market which takes place between 10am and 3pm in the Cathedral Cloisters. This will be followed by the service itself which begins at 3pm. All are welcome.
Revd Anne Lawson said: “Organising this event in Chester has given me the impetus to bring to life an idea I’ve had vaguely swimming around in my head for quite some time. I wanted an event that would focus in on raising the profile of really excellent quality locally produced food.
“Having the Harvest Torch visit these four special places will certainly achieve that, as will our farmer’s market. I’m very grateful to The Cheese Shop in Nantwich for being our principal sponsor and donating £500 to make this happen.”
