Historic chapel to open doors

An historic Grade-II listed Stourbridge chapel, which has been out of use for years, is to be opened to the public for a rare open day with residents being urged to support the event.

People are being offered the chance to look around the Lye and Wollescote Cemetery Chapel, which is usually locked up and has been closed for more than a decade.

The chapel will be opening its doors as part of the National Heritage Open Days scheme promoted by the Civic Trust and English Heritage.

The weekend event, planned for Saturday, September 8 and Sunday, September 9, has been organised by Dudley Council and the West Midlands Historic Buildings Trust. The site was first opened up to the public last year with many people from the community coming forward to take a look around the historic building.

But despite the success of the event only part of the building was opened up for people to see with a second section of the site remaining closed off.

This year, for the first time, both sections of the chapel will be open to the public giving people the chance to see the entire site.

It will be the first chance people will have got to see the second section of the chapel since the building closed in the early 1990s.

The buildings, which have been closed to the public since 1993, will be open from 10am to 4pm.