Tuesday, 30 June 2020
Sunday, 28 June 2020
Hymns, shopping and puddles
This morning it was my great privilege to be part of a zoom welcoming service for Amy. Amy is now part of the clergy team here at St.John the Baptist Hey. She will be a lay worker until she is ordained later in the year. The service concluded with two members of the choir singing Amy’s favourite hymn, Love Divine all loves excelling and very well sung it was. Co-incidentally this is also one of my favourite hymns. I have always considered the singing of hymns as a way of praying and none more so than this hymn. I have really missed this important part of worship during lockdown. I wonder what you have missed.
A few weeks ago I spoke of how I missed my grandaughters and how wonderful it was to see them again. It was my granddaughters birthday on the 6th of June and I promised to take her shopping. Not yet decided when that will be but I am really looking forward to it. It is so good to have something to look forward to. It can really lift your spirits and lighten your mood. Are you looking forward to something, please do let me know? Or maybe now that lockdown is gradually being lifted you have done something that you have really missed or was so looking forward to.
My grandson Archie is a real water baby. When we go out for our daily walk, he almost always finds some water that he can splash about in. On this particular day, we were on our way to see the Alpacas but he was sidetracked by this big puddle. We never got to see the alpacas. Archie had a wonderful time, so did nana splashing and jumping about in the puddle. He went home very soggy indeed. He is quite a hardy little chap, being wet or cold doesn't seem to bother him.
.
csteel58@hotmail.com
07962576457
Amy's welcome service
Our contacts list needs updating so apologies to those who wanted to join and didn't get an invitation, also some people wanted to join but didn't have the technology so here is a video of our service of welcome for Amy Sheridan, our new Curate.
Saturday, 27 June 2020
Service of Welcome and notices
The service on Sunday 28th June will take place using "Zoom" as we have to welcome Amy Sheridan, our new Curate. For this reason, there will be no service on the blog. I will ask everyone's permission, and if I get it, I will record the service and then post it on the blog. This means that it could be on by lunch time so please watch out for a new post later in the day.
Notices
When the government announced that churches could be open for private prayer, no one had time to do all the necessary preparation to ensure the safety of anyone wishing to visit for prayer. At the time I had pulled a muscle in my back and was in no fit state to do the necessary moving of furniture and cleaning. The PCC met via "zoom" to discuss this and the feeling at the time was that we should not open for several reasons which I will happily discuss with you if you choose to ring me.
Since then I have been into church to carry out a risk assessment and measure 2 metre distances between chairs. I have found that we can have 1,2 or even 3 people of the same household on every third row. This means that if people sit singly we can seat 10 people, if 2 from the same household, 20 people and if 3 from the same household, 30 people. I suspect that we would have a mixture of mainly 1s and 2s. Rev'd Chris and I have moved chairs and cordoned off seating that cannot be used. I intend to call another PCC meeting to see if people feel safe to proceed once I have completed the floor marking (we need a 1 way system with arrows indicating the direction of travel). There will be a separate entry and exit door. We will need an absolute minimum of 2 stewards but preferably 3. Now that Amy is joining us we may be able to proceed. I will update you after meeting PCC.
The government have said that from 4th July we can meet for services but please be aware, services will definitely not be as they were. I'm still waiting for specific information for churches in Manchester Diocese but here is part of a statement from the Bishop of London:
“We will not be returning to normality overnight - this is the next step on a journey. We’ve been planning carefully, making detailed advice available for parishes to enable them to prepare to hold services when it is safe and practical to do so. It is important to say that the change in Government guidance is permissive, not prescriptive.
Not all church buildings will be ready to hold regular services from 4 July 2020 but we are providing whatever support we can to enable them. There will still be restrictions and we must all still do everything we can to limit the spread of the virus to protect each other, especially the most vulnerable. The online services and dial-in worship offerings we have become used to will continue.
Churches and cathedrals have risen to the recent challenges, finding new ways of meeting for worship, of serving our neighbours, and of reaching new people with the love of God. The challenge before us now is to take the next steps carefully and safely, without forgetting all that we’ve discovered about God and ourselves on the way.”
Read the full statement from Bishop Sarah Mullally here.
Bishop David has also welcomed this development and reaffirmed his commitment that Manchester Diocese will to continue to provide updated guidance advice and support to parishes and clergy over the coming days and weeks. The diocesan guidance will reflect the detail of the Church of England advice once it is available after detailed Government guidance is published.
When I get more specific information re services in Manchester Diocese, I will let you know.
Not all church buildings will be ready to hold regular services from 4 July 2020 but we are providing whatever support we can to enable them. There will still be restrictions and we must all still do everything we can to limit the spread of the virus to protect each other, especially the most vulnerable. The online services and dial-in worship offerings we have become used to will continue.
Churches and cathedrals have risen to the recent challenges, finding new ways of meeting for worship, of serving our neighbours, and of reaching new people with the love of God. The challenge before us now is to take the next steps carefully and safely, without forgetting all that we’ve discovered about God and ourselves on the way.”
Read the full statement from Bishop Sarah Mullally here.
Bishop David has also welcomed this development and reaffirmed his commitment that Manchester Diocese will to continue to provide updated guidance advice and support to parishes and clergy over the coming days and weeks. The diocesan guidance will reflect the detail of the Church of England advice once it is available after detailed Government guidance is published.
When I get more specific information re services in Manchester Diocese, I will let you know.
Friday, 26 June 2020
Memories of a verger Part 1
A Verger’s memories of St. John the Baptist
Robert – ‘Bob’ Kirkpatrick became verger at Hey on 4th April, 1943 and he came to The Ladies Society twice to entertain us with his memories, we recorded his recollections and I here is a transcription of the tape recording. With only minor editing for interruptions etc. what you are reading are Bob’s own words……
‘I began at Hey St. Johns 5th April, 1943 and when I went for the interview, and was accepted I wondered what I had let myself in for, because it was Caretaker at the Day School, Verger and Sexton (which is a new name for grave digging of course) and Pew Rent Collector. Seven shillings a year was the Pew Rent, and woe betide anybody who sat in the wrong seat, there was no words exchanged but the faces showed, of course.
I had an old friend who was at the Day School at that time, and a chap called Baggot was the Headmaster, of course, I got a lot of information from him. The school was a difficult building, it was a massive great height, the hall, as was the Infant School – a terrific height and the three pokey little classrooms and it was terrible place in winter, freezing cold. It used to blow over the open fields from Austerlands top and all the toilets were at the top end of the yard, thirty or forty yards away and the doors were left wide open and the result was that I finished up about a couple of degrees higher up at tea time than I did when I started.
But anyway, to begin with the church I think you all know the history of it where you had to go to Ashton to be baptised, or married, that was a long trip wasn’t it, so there was a little Chapel of Ease built. There was no Waterhead, no Scouthead, no Lydgate no Leesfield, nothing, and it was all on it’s own was Hey, and it came under the diocese of Chester and it started off from there and of course it grew and grew and we have it as it is today. It did undergo one outside change, the windows were arched Norman style, whereas now they are pointed, so … to get into the interior, one of the first major changes was during Ernest Buckley’s stay at Hey, and the galleries ran all the way right round from the East wall, right the way round the choir and the organ right the way to the other wall. Ernest decided he would open the Chancel up because it was badly overshadowed. He decided the gallery would have to be cut back into the Nave, quite a way and that opened it up, but he took a terrific amount of stick over it because it was all right up to a point, but when it had been done the massive pulpit stood out like - oh I don’t know what it stood out like. It was on a plinth and a pedestal and there was an alabaster staircase up to it and it was really, oh a long way up. Of course the balcony in those days would be full, preaching to a full church then - the Reverend Grundy. His tablet used to be on the floor in the Chancel and it was taken up and put on the wall, and Ernest decided he would remodel it and the pulpit stood out, massive thing it was. I don’t know how many pieces it was in, he had a monumental mason pull it to pieces, rebuild it and lowered it - very much so. So that was that for the time being, but the Stamford Mill at that time wasn’t a mill any more, not spinning, and the mill lodge was being filled in and some of the pulpit finished up on that fill-in – oh there was a meeting in church about that. But he did a good job for me, in my opinion for what it’s worth, it was a jolly good job. As for the parish itself, it boasted three Sunday Schools, one was at Strinesdale, it’s only about a couple of fields below the Roebuck Inn, one was Austerlands on the corner of Thorpe Road, and one was Shelderslow in Cooper Street. The Whit Friday walk – that was the walk that was. We used to assemble outside the church, and the band came from Horbury near Wakefield and they came for over sixty years, and they began hymn singing outside the church, and they marched down to Lees square, there was no library, or any shops, just a police station (it was manned) but also a police cell there if anyone got out of hand. They used to have a mass sing there, then they all peeled off different ways, and ours was up Oldham Road, Springhead. We used to sing at Shelderslow School, then march up to Heywood Lane and sing at Austerlands Sunday School, down Austerlands to Stamford Road, and along Stamford Road and that was the finish and you got your bun and your tea. It was all morning, 9.00am set off to 12.30, this was Whit Friday as it was then – not Whit Sunday, then in the afternoon to the football field, Phoenix, and then later to Woodheads field.
The parish itself has had its fair share of those dark satanic mills, Austerlands, still standing of course,
And then you came down into the village itself, Hey Spinning Company and going along Turner Street, still in the parish was Dowry Mill, and the Oldham & Lees Spinning and coming back into Hey was
Further Hey Mill there, so quite a few for a small parish. But that was how cotton was, it was ‘King Cotton’ and Waterhead was alive with mills.
The church itself blossomed to the church as it is today, but the second disaster was the fire, during Bernal Kelly’s day, of course once the fire was confined to the roof it was finally decided that the whole place should be cleared out but it was a disaster in itself, it was a masterpiece of an organ that was ruined. Of course the Fire Brigade are there to get out the fire quick, they get that water going and everything else comes second. The Greenfield Architect, Mr. Howcroft, did not get on with the job as the PCC would like so he was replaced, and along came John Ashcroft, and they gave him a free hand to set about the whole place, which he did, and as you know it was absolutely cleaned out wasn’t it, the pews the lot, the floors, everything that was wood was out, and he set about restoring it and you have it in its present form now.
A very quiet parish years ago, acres and acres of open land which the developers spotted, and of course they went in, and the parish as it is today unlike its neighbour Waterhead, it was developed and Waterhead was more or less gutted a jolly good knocking about, they smashed it up really and made a lot of old people unhappy. So anyway then, I’ll just drop in at Waterhead for a minute or two, that was a hive of activity, shops all along Huddersfield Road, whereas in Hey there was very little in shopping. Dunkerley's shop, which was the subject of a little bit of television, still going, and further down was a Bakers and Confections shop then going to where the Paint and Paper is now was a little branch of the Co-op and then you went down into Lees for the main shopping. Lees was a thriving township. Huddersfield Road near Hestair Hope, there’s a sign there, Oldham Metropolitan Borough, Lees, and further up the road is a Boundary stone. This isn’t the one I rescued that one morning when a YTS group arrived and were going to crack it up. They were getting ready with a sledge hammer, a gang of youngsters, very happy go lucky – hang on a minute, hang on I said. I went up to Mr. Kelly and told him what was going on, if you want to save it he said you get it saved. Anyway there it stands now; you can nearly fall over it as you come out of the west door, can’t you.
The old School was given by Austin Ogden, a cotton merchant I suppose he would be because the Ogden family were quite wealthy. It was 1884 that Rev. Grundy’s wife opened it, and it was run by a group of Managers, and the Vicars at that time had very little say, but they had a seat on the Board of Managers, but that was the way it was in those days. But it niggled the then vicar, he was a bit upset I think was Richard Jenkins. Inside there was a mounted brass plaque, most of you have probably seen it. There are fifteen children on there, and the fifteenth was Decimus Quintus! In the old records down in Manchester, the comment was ‘Robbed by guile of his situation’. There might have been a bit of skulduggery there you know. I don’t say it applied to Mr. Mattinson himself, but it’s written in, ‘robbed by guile’. Inside the church there was at least a dozen graves which they found during the main restoration, they scooped the whole floor, lifted the soil up, and where the two pillars are, where you came in at the main door, at the bottom of one is an iron coffin, how that happened I don’t know. One of the workmen said ‘here what do you make of this’ – it was a new one to me. There must be a dozen graves inside so it must have been built on a burial ground, must have been - surely they wouldn’t have built it and then started burying people inside!
(A little discussion followed with reference to a letter received a long time ago, from the then Bishop of Chester, saying that they could not bury people in church, something which had begun to happen because of grave robbers, so Bob agreed that this might explain the graves inside the church).
Robert – ‘Bob’ Kirkpatrick became verger at Hey on 4th April, 1943 and he came to The Ladies Society twice to entertain us with his memories, we recorded his recollections and I here is a transcription of the tape recording. With only minor editing for interruptions etc. what you are reading are Bob’s own words……
‘I began at Hey St. Johns 5th April, 1943 and when I went for the interview, and was accepted I wondered what I had let myself in for, because it was Caretaker at the Day School, Verger and Sexton (which is a new name for grave digging of course) and Pew Rent Collector. Seven shillings a year was the Pew Rent, and woe betide anybody who sat in the wrong seat, there was no words exchanged but the faces showed, of course.
I had an old friend who was at the Day School at that time, and a chap called Baggot was the Headmaster, of course, I got a lot of information from him. The school was a difficult building, it was a massive great height, the hall, as was the Infant School – a terrific height and the three pokey little classrooms and it was terrible place in winter, freezing cold. It used to blow over the open fields from Austerlands top and all the toilets were at the top end of the yard, thirty or forty yards away and the doors were left wide open and the result was that I finished up about a couple of degrees higher up at tea time than I did when I started.
But anyway, to begin with the church I think you all know the history of it where you had to go to Ashton to be baptised, or married, that was a long trip wasn’t it, so there was a little Chapel of Ease built. There was no Waterhead, no Scouthead, no Lydgate no Leesfield, nothing, and it was all on it’s own was Hey, and it came under the diocese of Chester and it started off from there and of course it grew and grew and we have it as it is today. It did undergo one outside change, the windows were arched Norman style, whereas now they are pointed, so … to get into the interior, one of the first major changes was during Ernest Buckley’s stay at Hey, and the galleries ran all the way right round from the East wall, right the way round the choir and the organ right the way to the other wall. Ernest decided he would open the Chancel up because it was badly overshadowed. He decided the gallery would have to be cut back into the Nave, quite a way and that opened it up, but he took a terrific amount of stick over it because it was all right up to a point, but when it had been done the massive pulpit stood out like - oh I don’t know what it stood out like. It was on a plinth and a pedestal and there was an alabaster staircase up to it and it was really, oh a long way up. Of course the balcony in those days would be full, preaching to a full church then - the Reverend Grundy. His tablet used to be on the floor in the Chancel and it was taken up and put on the wall, and Ernest decided he would remodel it and the pulpit stood out, massive thing it was. I don’t know how many pieces it was in, he had a monumental mason pull it to pieces, rebuild it and lowered it - very much so. So that was that for the time being, but the Stamford Mill at that time wasn’t a mill any more, not spinning, and the mill lodge was being filled in and some of the pulpit finished up on that fill-in – oh there was a meeting in church about that. But he did a good job for me, in my opinion for what it’s worth, it was a jolly good job. As for the parish itself, it boasted three Sunday Schools, one was at Strinesdale, it’s only about a couple of fields below the Roebuck Inn, one was Austerlands on the corner of Thorpe Road, and one was Shelderslow in Cooper Street. The Whit Friday walk – that was the walk that was. We used to assemble outside the church, and the band came from Horbury near Wakefield and they came for over sixty years, and they began hymn singing outside the church, and they marched down to Lees square, there was no library, or any shops, just a police station (it was manned) but also a police cell there if anyone got out of hand. They used to have a mass sing there, then they all peeled off different ways, and ours was up Oldham Road, Springhead. We used to sing at Shelderslow School, then march up to Heywood Lane and sing at Austerlands Sunday School, down Austerlands to Stamford Road, and along Stamford Road and that was the finish and you got your bun and your tea. It was all morning, 9.00am set off to 12.30, this was Whit Friday as it was then – not Whit Sunday, then in the afternoon to the football field, Phoenix, and then later to Woodheads field.
The parish itself has had its fair share of those dark satanic mills, Austerlands, still standing of course,
And then you came down into the village itself, Hey Spinning Company and going along Turner Street, still in the parish was Dowry Mill, and the Oldham & Lees Spinning and coming back into Hey was
Further Hey Mill there, so quite a few for a small parish. But that was how cotton was, it was ‘King Cotton’ and Waterhead was alive with mills.
The church itself blossomed to the church as it is today, but the second disaster was the fire, during Bernal Kelly’s day, of course once the fire was confined to the roof it was finally decided that the whole place should be cleared out but it was a disaster in itself, it was a masterpiece of an organ that was ruined. Of course the Fire Brigade are there to get out the fire quick, they get that water going and everything else comes second. The Greenfield Architect, Mr. Howcroft, did not get on with the job as the PCC would like so he was replaced, and along came John Ashcroft, and they gave him a free hand to set about the whole place, which he did, and as you know it was absolutely cleaned out wasn’t it, the pews the lot, the floors, everything that was wood was out, and he set about restoring it and you have it in its present form now.
A very quiet parish years ago, acres and acres of open land which the developers spotted, and of course they went in, and the parish as it is today unlike its neighbour Waterhead, it was developed and Waterhead was more or less gutted a jolly good knocking about, they smashed it up really and made a lot of old people unhappy. So anyway then, I’ll just drop in at Waterhead for a minute or two, that was a hive of activity, shops all along Huddersfield Road, whereas in Hey there was very little in shopping. Dunkerley's shop, which was the subject of a little bit of television, still going, and further down was a Bakers and Confections shop then going to where the Paint and Paper is now was a little branch of the Co-op and then you went down into Lees for the main shopping. Lees was a thriving township. Huddersfield Road near Hestair Hope, there’s a sign there, Oldham Metropolitan Borough, Lees, and further up the road is a Boundary stone. This isn’t the one I rescued that one morning when a YTS group arrived and were going to crack it up. They were getting ready with a sledge hammer, a gang of youngsters, very happy go lucky – hang on a minute, hang on I said. I went up to Mr. Kelly and told him what was going on, if you want to save it he said you get it saved. Anyway there it stands now; you can nearly fall over it as you come out of the west door, can’t you.
The old School was given by Austin Ogden, a cotton merchant I suppose he would be because the Ogden family were quite wealthy. It was 1884 that Rev. Grundy’s wife opened it, and it was run by a group of Managers, and the Vicars at that time had very little say, but they had a seat on the Board of Managers, but that was the way it was in those days. But it niggled the then vicar, he was a bit upset I think was Richard Jenkins. Inside there was a mounted brass plaque, most of you have probably seen it. There are fifteen children on there, and the fifteenth was Decimus Quintus! In the old records down in Manchester, the comment was ‘Robbed by guile of his situation’. There might have been a bit of skulduggery there you know. I don’t say it applied to Mr. Mattinson himself, but it’s written in, ‘robbed by guile’. Inside the church there was at least a dozen graves which they found during the main restoration, they scooped the whole floor, lifted the soil up, and where the two pillars are, where you came in at the main door, at the bottom of one is an iron coffin, how that happened I don’t know. One of the workmen said ‘here what do you make of this’ – it was a new one to me. There must be a dozen graves inside so it must have been built on a burial ground, must have been - surely they wouldn’t have built it and then started burying people inside!
(A little discussion followed with reference to a letter received a long time ago, from the then Bishop of Chester, saying that they could not bury people in church, something which had begun to happen because of grave robbers, so Bob agreed that this might explain the graves inside the church).
Kath Sellars
Wednesday, 24 June 2020
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