Sunday 13 September 2026 - From 11:00am

Join artist Luca Sutton for a hands-on, family-friendly craft session, part of Doors to Hallowtide: an new art installation at Lyme this October half term.

11AM - 4PM, Sunday 13 September

Stockroom, Stockport

In this workshop:
you’ll sculpt and paint your own paper pulp ‘soul cakes’ - traditionally spiced alms biscuits given out during the historical Cheshire folk custom of ‘Souling’ on All Hallows Eve. Working with a lightweight paper mulch and clay powder mix, you will form and decorate your own unique prop biscuits! Once finished, these handmade pieces will be weatherproofed and installed as part of the installation across the Lyme estate.

It’s a wonderful opportunity to make your mark on a local heritage project, and when the installation opens, you can visit Lyme with family and friends to search for the very soul cakes you created and decorated!

More about the Project:
Doors to Hallowtide is an interactive, site-specific outdoor installation by Luca Sutton featuring approximately 10 standalone decorated doors curated playfully into the landscape of the Lyme estate at specially selected locations. The doors operate as physical boundaries that visitors can move through and stand as striking, folky art objects that playfully disrupt and enliven the enigmatic landscape of Lyme.

Rooted in the atmospheric traditions of AllHallowstide - a historical three-day window spanning All Hallows Eve, All Saints, and All Souls, when the veil between worlds was believed to thin - Doors to Hallowtide places interactive doors across the Lyme landscape as gateways to the local history and folklore associated with this time of year. The project speaks directly to the Cheshire folk custom of "Souling," the precursor to modern day trick-or-treating, where rural communities would travel door to door offering prayers for departed souls in exchange for "soul cakes" (spiced alms biscuits). Visitors will carry and distribute these handmade prop soul cakes between baskets attached to each door, bringing this historical tradition back to life across the estate.

As well as directly referencing the tradition of Souling, the doors operate as canvases for regional lore, with an aesthetic evoking an old storybook or theatre set, decorated with visual motifs inspired by Cheshire’s Souling Plays, harvest bonfire traditions, bell-ringing, and Lyme’s own ghostly legends—including the White Lady, Green Lady, and the skeleton of the Ghost Room.

Free, Drop In