VIDEO: Secrets of Moravian settlement go on show (From Bradford Telegraph and Argus)

Collection of letters, memoirs and records on display at Fulneck church

9:00am Friday 3rd September 2010 in Local Video By Will Kilner

Documents from the 18th century are to go on display for the first time at Fulneck Moravian Church, Pudsey.

Once persecuted, the Moravians settled in West Yorkshire and were studious at recording their life.

The earliest documents, which will be on show in the Grade I listed church, are written in archaic High German, covering accounts of life, births, deaths, and the punishment handed out to miscreant children.

The Moravian church is among hundreds of properties across Yorkshire that will open its doors to the public for free during the Heritage Open Days event, between September 9 and 12.

Archivist Hilary Smith, of Baildon, a retired Moravian minister, said the oldest documents dated back to the 1740s.

She said: “We do get a lot of people here coming to research the material we have, but this is the first time we have ever had the archive open for people to come in and have a look at.

“We have a lot of letters from people asking to be received into membership of the church. They had to write to the congregation to be received.”

Among the documents to be displayed are a number of accounts from the shop at the Fulneck Moravian settlement, which used to be on the site of the modern-day restaurant.