Di.Poppitt
GONE BUT NOT FORGOTTEN
When I was three two young girls took me to Sunday School. It wasn't to a C of E church, which is where I had been christened, but to the Baptist Church in Trinity Road, The Gospel Hall.
There was a brick building behind the main chapel where all the little children went, but I wasn't keen on bing in with the tots, so they let me stay with the 'big girls'. I thought I was a big girl anyway
That Chapel became part of my life. One of the events of the year was on Whit Sunday, when the Anniversary was held. Benches were laid at one end raised in tiers and there we stood, singing the well rehearsed hymns. All of us girls had a new white frock for the day, the boys handsome in their white shirts, hair brushed and slicked down. Proud mom's and dad's sat oohing and aahing in the audience, and joined in some of the hymns.
Mr and Mrs Walker ran the church, they were jewellers by profession and lived far from Witton but they gave a lot of their time to us children. Each year there was a Sunday School outing, and it cost us nothing. A charabang arrived in Trinity Road and off we went. Wicksteed Park in Northants was a favourite place, it was a theme park with a water chute ride that was a favouite for a lot of us.
There was always a Christmas Party and prize giving, I still have the bible I was given one year.
I left school and left the church, I never went again. In later years mom went every Sunday night, she took with her the Godlen Bells hymn book that I'd used. By that time the congregation were mainly West Indians, and the kindness they showed to mom was lovely. They fetched her from home and took her back when the nights were dark, and kindly listened to her stories of my years there.
There was a Centenary celebration about five years ago. Mrs Walker was there, then in her 90's, with a cine film taken by her husband of one of our outings. I had planned to go but didn't make it because a dose of 'flu got in the way, I was so disapointed.
There was a brick building behind the main chapel where all the little children went, but I wasn't keen on bing in with the tots, so they let me stay with the 'big girls'. I thought I was a big girl anyway
That Chapel became part of my life. One of the events of the year was on Whit Sunday, when the Anniversary was held. Benches were laid at one end raised in tiers and there we stood, singing the well rehearsed hymns. All of us girls had a new white frock for the day, the boys handsome in their white shirts, hair brushed and slicked down. Proud mom's and dad's sat oohing and aahing in the audience, and joined in some of the hymns.
Mr and Mrs Walker ran the church, they were jewellers by profession and lived far from Witton but they gave a lot of their time to us children. Each year there was a Sunday School outing, and it cost us nothing. A charabang arrived in Trinity Road and off we went. Wicksteed Park in Northants was a favourite place, it was a theme park with a water chute ride that was a favouite for a lot of us.
There was always a Christmas Party and prize giving, I still have the bible I was given one year.
I left school and left the church, I never went again. In later years mom went every Sunday night, she took with her the Godlen Bells hymn book that I'd used. By that time the congregation were mainly West Indians, and the kindness they showed to mom was lovely. They fetched her from home and took her back when the nights were dark, and kindly listened to her stories of my years there.
There was a Centenary celebration about five years ago. Mrs Walker was there, then in her 90's, with a cine film taken by her husband of one of our outings. I had planned to go but didn't make it because a dose of 'flu got in the way, I was so disapointed.
