A Fifties Childhood: Chapel

Fifties Childhood - Memories

Our family has been associated with “the chapel in the High Street” ( Independent Wesleyan Church to give it its correct title) since my Mum began attending as a small girl in the early part of the twentieth century. As a family we all sang in the choir – I sang soprano, Mum sang alto, Dad and Richard sang tenor and Barry sang bass. Barry had a lovely mellow bass/baritone voice and often sang solos. Choir practice was on Wednesday evening and the choir always sang an introit, anthem and vesper at Sunday evening service. Special services at Christmas required lots of practice and every year on Palm Sunday the choir sang either Stainer’s “Crucifixion” or Maunder’s “Olivet to Calvary ”. Local soloists were called in and the choir augmented by singers from other churches.

We attended Sunday school at ten o’clock followed by church at eleven. Afternoon Sunday School started at two o’clock   followed by evening service at six. This was the routine every Sunday followed by walks, in the summer, to the Hall Park after afternoon Sunday School or evening service. A brass band always played in the park during the summer and made a lovely relaxing atmosphere for all those who spent the rest of the week in the shoe factories.

During the week there were a variety of meetings at the chapel- Sunshine Corner (later to be called Junior Christian Endeavour), Christian Endeavour, Men’s Fellowship, Mother’s Fellowship, Women’s Auxilliary, Boy’s Brigade, and Girls Life Brigade.

My Mum produced two pantomimes for the Sunday school. First “Snow White and the Seven Dwarves” followed the next year by “Cinderella”. Margaret and I were both dwarves and we wore beards made out of grey fur. Elizabeth ’s Uncle Harry owned a slipper factory and he let us have some grey fur out of which we made the beards.

Sue (extreme right) in 'Snow White and the Seven Dwarves'

As well as producing the play Mum, along with Mrs. Maddams and Mrs. Dickens, made all the costumes. For weeks the house was full of bags of material and the sewing machine seemed to be permanently out. I was used as a model for a lot of the clothes and got fed up breaking off from what I was doing to try on yet another costume. In “Cinderella” I was Buttons. During one performance I (Buttons) had to meet up with the “Demon King”. I was supposed to gently bump into him in the forest. However one night the bump turned into a skid and I fell flat on my bottom on the hard wooden floor of the stage. Everyone thought this had been rehearsed but it hadn’t. I was close to tears as my bottom really hurt but “the show must go on” and so I continued and the quaver in my voice only added to the “fear of meeting the Demon King”

Don Aspinall painted scenery for us. We had a great time and for the first time had to wear “Greasepaint” (the name for stage make-up). There were three performances for both pantomimes and tickets were sold to ensure there was enough space. All performances were fully booked.

In later years Mum produced “Starlight Concert Party”. We sang medleys of songs, performed sketches and plays, sang solos and did monologues. Richard did a female impersonation act miming to the records of Connie Francis. One year we did “The Black and White Minstrels” which was a popular programme on the television. Some of us had thick black make-up on to be the minstrels. Today there would be public protests if anyone dared to put on a show like this but in the fifties-sixties this was a very popular TV programme which went out every Sunday night for many years. Calls of “Racist” would be heard and legal proceedings taken out, but yet it was a simple variety programme which seemed to offend no-one and was enjoyed by large audiences. (It was the same with Golliwogs – I loved my Golly and never even thought of him as anything other than a toy like my teddies. Sometimes political correctness brings up issues that aren’t even there in the first place)

 We went round to various village halls and churches to entertain. After one performance we came out to blanket fog. We were only in Higham Ferrers but it took us over an hour to get home as Richard had to drive very slowly keeping to the kerb as we were not able to see more that a few inches in front of the car.

Bazaar time was another time of getting together and working on a concert. This was the first performance of the new concert party material for the year. Each organisation had and decorated a stall in the theme of the bazaar. There was activity all week in the hall and by Saturday it looked splendid. Mr. Sid Weekley, the church organist, was very artistic and each year made a splendid display around the stage. There was a fancy dress parade for the younger children and a local “celebrity” opened the bazaar and judged the costumes. Most years, while I was little, I was in the fancy dress parade. One year I was a fairy and I have the photos to back this up. Coronation year we had a special Coronation Bazaar and a Coronation Queen. Saturday morning of bazaar day was a special treat as we always went to the hairdressers to have our hair set so that we would look pretty for the concert. Teas were served all afternoon in the downstairs school room and the evening ended with a concert.

In later years when she wasn’t producing a concert anymore Mum had her own stall selling items that she had spent all year making. Hundreds of pounds were raised each year at the bazaar helping to finance the running of the church. The camaraderie was great and everyone in the church had a role to play. The hall would be filled with everyone from the “New Estate” in Queen Street ( Windsor Road etc ).

Sunday school outing every year was great fun. In the fifties very few people had cars and money was tight and so we didn’t venture far except for holidays. The Sunday school arranged a special train to take us to Skegness. Buses took us down to Irthlingborough Station where we boarded the train (steam of course in the Fifties). The journey took a long time but this was just as much fun as the time at Skegness. We enjoyed being with our friends and messing about.

Girls Life Brigade or GLB as it was known was held every Friday night and we studied for badges and practised drill. Once a month we had parade Sunday when we had to march in the area of the chapel before going into the Sunday morning service. We had a uniform and would have the badges that we had achieved sewn on the sleeves. Often I was chosen to carry the flag at the front of the parade. To help you to handle the flag you had a little leather holder on a strap that went round your neck and the end of the flag pole was rested in the holder. One year we entered the carnival and I had to carry the flag all around the town.  It was a very hot day making this a very arduous task and I was extremely glad when the parade came to a halt on its journey so that I could take the flag down and have a rest.

It was decided that during the holidays we would go camping and so it was arranged with a local farmer at Chelveston that we would use one of his fields. Sleeping arrangements were either two-man tents or the eight man bell tent. Water was collected from a natural spring and boiled on the traditional camp fire. Toilet arrangements were a hole in the ground with a spade nearby to cover the “business” with soil afterwards. It was decided that we would take our cooking badge and so my Dad and Mr. Cook were elected to be the unfortunate judges. My Dad said “I’ve never tasted a dinner like it!” We passed our cooking badge despite the comments. GLB taught me lots of different skills, one of these being “How to darn a sock”.  I still know the correct way now but as we throw socks away now I have little use for it. I was also taught “The correct way to clean shoes.” Unfortunately I was then given the job of cleaning the shoes as I knew the correct method.

Fifties Childhood - Memories