Houghton - Down Your Way

A Fibromyalgia Awareness Day will be held in “Space 4” on the ground floor of the library building in Newbottle Street from 10am-2pm on Thursday. Go along to find out more about this debilitating condition. There will also be homemade cakes, crafts and a raffle to raise funds for the charity.

Police Historian, Norman Kirtlan, will give an illustrated talk about the Mary Bell – child murders to Houghton Older People’s Enterprise in the Methodist Church hall at 1pm on Thursday.

The AGM of Penshaw Community Association will be held in the community centre at 7pm on Friday. All members are urged to attend for the conduct of the business.

Houghton and District Rambling Club will be walking around Ripon on Sunday. The coach will leave The Broadway in front of St Michael’s Parish Church at 8.30am. Further details from leader G Lindsley on 5202152 or secretary John Conder on 3856551.

Entertainment by Rock Choir with a mixed programme of rock, pop and gospel music will feature at the next meeting of U3A (University of the 3rd Age) in the Welfare Hall of the sports complex at 2pm on Tuesday, May 17. Admission is £2, including tea and biscuits. Further details from Bill Milburn on 5844677.

The Sunderland Group of the Ramblers’ Association will be walking around the Beamish Circular on Wednesday, May 18, meeting in the Eden Place car park at 10.30am with leader Jim Birkett. Phone 07474 666119 for further details.

All Saints’ Church in Penshaw Village is now open for quiet prayer on Thursdays from 10am-noon and visitors are most welcome to come along and have a cup of tea or coffee afterwards.

The next in the series of concerts in St Michael and All Angels’ Parish Church by Master Musicians International is a piano recital by Young Lion of the Keyboard Tyler Hay with a programme by Liszt, Schumann, Rameau and John Field, at 7.30pm on Thursday, May 19. Admission to the event is £7.

Maureen Simpson, from Murton Methodist Church, spoke to Sunniside Methodist Women’s Fellowship about Being hospitable to all people – everywhere.

Speaker at Houghton Rotary Club was member Colin Hill, who admits to a passion for the history of railways. He gave an illustrated talk about the Quintinshill Disaster near Gretna Green in the early days of the First World War when more than 200 soldiers and some civilians were killed when a train on the main line from Carlisle crashed into a troop carrying train due to a signalman’s error in the early hours of the morning. The error allowed the troop train from a side line on to the main line with tragic results.