CALENDARS and Christmas cards have created special memories for a family in the United States who have a link with the Durham town stretching back more than 150 years.

Catherine Murray, who lives in Lake Bluff, Illinois, USA, recently visited Sedgefield but was disappointed when she found the doors to St Edmund’s Church, in the centre of town, were closed.

Then, during a visit to Sedgefield’s ‘From Loft to Loved’ home and gift shop, she noticed samples of the Friends of St Edmund’s Church’s 2023 calendar and this year’s Christmas cards - and was particularly pleased with a tri-fold card showing the church interior.

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Shop owners Kim and Sarah contacted Friends’ membership secretary Brian Mutch who, after exchanging emails with Mrs Murray, subsequently forwarded two calendars and a pack of the local scene cards to her.

In one message to Brian, Mrs Murray explained that her grandfather, James Clark, who then lived at Weterton Mill farm on the outskirts of Sedgefield, was baptised in the church in November 1860, a month after he was born.

“We were very sad that the church was closed and that is why the card showing the interior is so special,” said Mrs Murray, the youngest child of her grandfather’s 12th child.

‘From Loft to Loved’ now stocks the Friends’ merchandise which, said Brian, is ‘flying off the shelves’.

He said: “We know that the Friends’ fund-raising merchandise goes to many parts of the world but I don’t believe we have ever sent anything to Illinois.

"It’s gratifying to think that the Murray family are helping to preserve the fabric of St Edmund’s even though they live so far away.”

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