Pugin After Dark Festival 2026 - On the Trail of Pugin

After a very busy day at the Pugin exhibition, the celebrations continued well into the evening with talks, music and art at St Peter’s Church. As attendees arrived they were treated to the delightful sound of resident organist, Mark Goodhew. Mark also holds the position of assistant organist at Stoke Minster and has played at the majority of the churches across Stoke on Trent and the Staffordshire Moorlands and this was the first of 5 occasions this year where he has been asked to perform outside normal church functions across Staffordshire.

St Peter's Church after dark

Church organist mark Goodhew

David Slade

The first talk of the evening was given by David Slade. David spent all his working life as an architect, specialising towards the end of his career in conservation work and church re-ordering. He was awarded a Master's Degree in the History of Architecture at Keele University, and during those studies he developed an interest in Pugin. David's talk entitled, Pugin’s Connections with Alton Towers, provided a fascinating insight into Pugin's work at the Towers and also conjured up vivid images of what the once great house had looked like inside.

Analogue Ethereal Ensemble,

Analogue Ethereal Ensemble

Analogue Ethereal Ensemble

It was then time for the fantastic Analogue Ethereal Ensemble, an enchanting drone folk trio from the Staffordshire Moorlands, to take to the stage. Pete and Rick cleverly used synths and drums to create ambient and evocative soundscapes overlaid with Martha's beautiful traditional vocals. They group performed four captivating pieces, the last of which told the local legend of Alton's famous chained oak.

On the Trail of Pugin

Louie Young

On the Trail of Pugin

After a short interval with refreshments, once again kindly put on by the Alton Bellringers, Pugin After Dark Founder Louie Young shared a number of tales from Pugin's life in her talk entitled On the Trail of Pugin. Stories included his fear of revolutionaries, near miss shipwrecks and his early career in the theatre which inspired him to build his own in his parents house.

The evening was finished off with more music from organist Mark whilst guests had the opportunity to colour as they listened and take part in our Pugin Tile project.

We would like to say thank you so much to St Peter's Church for hosting us, to Mark Goodhew and Analogue Ethereal Ensemble for the wonderful music, David Slade and Louie Young for their interesting and informative talks, to the Alton Bellringers for putting on the refreshments and to Lee Munro of Pugin After Dark for compering plus the rest of the Pugin After Dark team, Johnnie, Kevin and Sue.

A massive thank you to Outside who have generously awarded us a Creative Community Commission last year, taking our idea of creating a festival from a dream to a reality - we couldn't have done this without you.​ A big thank you also to Alton Community Events who will also kindly supported the festival.

To be the first to hear about future events, project and plans please join the Pugin After Dark please mailing list via out contact us page here.