This month I am feeling very sad at the loss of particular institutions which have recognizable buildings, and also represent part of our culture and were once central to the lives of so many. But alas, no more, and one by one, many of the nonconformist chapels in our rural villages are closing their doors for the last time. This month yet another chapel in the Yorkshire dales closed and I am mourning the fact that I will no longer go into that building where I had friends that met together and many memories. So whatever your thoughts are about such institutions or your thoughts about buildings now left empty or put up for sale, this month I am reflecting on what they represented, not just a building but so many aspects of life that were part and parcel of their existence. First of all chapels are usually recognizable because of their architecture, the shape of the windows, the doors, the entrance, if they had a Sunday School. This is from a newspaper cutting recording the stone laying for Leyburn Methodist chapel in August 1884. The chapel will be of the early English style of architecture, and will accommodate about 300 persons. There is a schoolroom behind to accommodate 100 children, with two classrooms, and above there is the organ gallery. The whole of the internal woodwork will be of pitch pine, with open seat ends, the ceiling being boarded and pannelled and circular pointed, so that the acoustic properties shall be good and the ventilation and other conveniences have been well studied. Mr C Anderson of York is the architect, and the contractors are Mr Jas Peacock, brick and stonework; Mr Alfred Sanderson, joiners’ work; Mr T F Dobson, plumber, and Mr Thomas Horner, painter. The cost will be about £1,500 . The inside decoration also could be quite distinctive. Above are the interior details of Reeth Methodist chapel. Several features are typical of such buildings. The pulpit is in the middle because the preaching of The Word is central to the whole service. Behind the pulpit, also central, is the pipe organ, the music is of great importance in the expression of worship. Some chapels also had choir stalls between the organ and the pulpit, the choir was so important. But what else was represented by these buildings ? Their existence was marked on Ordnance Survey maps as a simple cross, because they did not usually have towers or steeple, so the tiny black cross on a map can be missed, but they were landmarks nevertheless. Chapel events were meeting places. It was quite normal that the chatter outside chapel on Sunday would take up as much time as the sermon. All sorts of local news was exchanged, friendships formed, the world put to rights. My parents met at a village chapel. My Sunday School Class in the early '70s. Some of them were little imps ! There were several highlights of the Sunday School calendar. In May there would be the Sunday School Anniversary, where the children had to learn a "recitation" or little poem that would have some poignant message, and sing songs. The Sunday School Anniversary always prompted a flurry of sewing as the girls would get a new dress, their "Anniversary dress", unless of course, like me, you got your older sister's dresses. I have a collection of these recitations, annotated in my mother's writing as to which child was allocated which verse. Typical of the genre - Face the sun and you will find / All the shadows fall behind / Turn the other way instead / And the shadows lie ahead. / Look to Jesus every day / And His love will light your way. / Shadows come, and ways grow dim / When you turn away from Him. Some children may have had their first experience of public speaking at a Sunday School Anniversary. There was also a whole publishing industry around Anniversary music. Again, I have a collection of these inherited from past generations who were Sunday School teachers long ago. The music is fairly simple to learn but offered opportunities for singing together. Even if the children could not read music, most was published with the Sol-Fa system. Below each line of music the notes were then printed out using the Sol-Fa system. This is how many children learnt music. You went up the scale singing doh, ray, me, fa, so, la, tee, doh. So the notation below each stave told you which note of the scale to sing - doh, tee, doh, me, me, fa etc etc I have got whole reams of music written out this way, but I doubt anyone would know how to follow it now. There were also hand signals for each of the sol-fa notes, which an accomplished teacher could sign at speed. Think of it as sign language for music ! But this made music available to so many through Sunday Schools. Sunday School prize giving was another highlight of the year when each child received a book. We forget how important this was in the past, for many children this may have been the only book they received all year. It was so for my father who so looked forward to getting his Sunday School prize. One year he got Ballantyne's Coral Island. Can you imagine the huge disappointment of a small boy to be given the same book the following year ? For all of my childhood both identical copies of Coral Island were side by side in our book case. Arthur Darwin was a relation and for some reason I have his Sunday School prize which was called "Jack Forrester's Fate". Sunday School prize givings also spawned a whole publishing industry of worthy and moral books suitable to edify and improve the lives of children. I am sure that such titles cheered many a dull Sunday ! But no matter what the subject, they offered a level of literacy and brought books into households that might otherwise have not had any books at all. Another feature of the Sunday School year was the Sunday School trip. In the days before car ownership the opportunity to go somewhere was a indeed a treat. The whole history of mass tourism is linked to Sunday School outings. Thomas Cook began by chartering a train for a Temperance Society outing. He was a Baptist, and organised outings for Sunday School children in Leicester. The Sunday School outing when I was a child went to Redcar, and there was always some unfortunate child who was sick on the bus, it was usually cold and wet, and I have hated the sea side ever since. A neighbouring village, deciding that it was positioned half way between east and west coasts, alternated between Morecambe and Scarborough, and sometimes we went with their Sunday School. Early railway companies advertised that they would take large groups for Sunday School trips. Preston Guardian 17 July 1852 East Lancashire Railway. Excursion Trips for Sunday Schools, members of Institutions, Operative etc. The public are respectfuly informed that this Company are prepared to make Arrangements with parties for Excursion Trains at very low fares, to any of the many delightful places that can be reached by this line of railway, such as Morecambe Bay, Furness Abbey, Ripon (for Fountains Abbey) and Studley Park, Skipton (for Bolton Abbey) , Harrogate, Houghton Tower etc etc. Morecambe Bay , more particularly is one of the most delightful places, the journey to and from this beautiful bay is interesting in the extreme.... From the bay a picturesque and panoramic view of the Westmoreland and Cumberland mountains may be obtained.... Applications addressed to the general Manager, Bury, will receive immediate attention In 1849 a man in Ripon, Henry Steel Thirlway, recorded in his diary that the Sunday School Union Trip brought 3,000 out of Leeds to Ripon. The children were allowed to visit Fountains Abbey for no charge, but their teachers had to pay a shilling. Chapel teas were an important feature. If the chapel had a Sunday School large enough for trestle tables there might be a sit-down-tea after a special meeting, if not, cups of tea and trays of home made cakes were handed round. Certain places were noted for particular delicacies, you knew that if you went to such-and-such a chapel Mrs So-and-so made the most delicious sponge cakes or whatever. In the early days many chapels had special Tea Meetings to raise funds with invited speakers and choirs to sing, followed by a tea for which tickets were sold. York Herald 10 June 1854 Tea festival. The Annual Wesleyan Sunday School tea festival was celebrated on Whit-Monday in the Wesleyan Chapel, Middleham. At four o’clock the children of the school along with the teachers, superintendents etc paraded the streets and sung a hymn in various parts of the town. They proceeded to the chapel at half past four, and sat down to an excellent tea, after which, the public were admitted by ticket. In the evening at seven o’clock, a great number of pieces of sacred music were performed in a very efficient style by a choir of singers from Middeslbro’, Hawes, and Reeth. A vote of thanks was proposed by Rev G Beard, and carried unanimously, to the ladies for their kind services in presiding at the trays, and also to the excellent choir, after which the meeting separated. In addition, Methodist chapels had "Love Feasts", often misunderstood ! But these were very simple meetings where ordinary folk met together to share their Christian experiences, and pass round a simple cup of water and pieces of "Love Feast cake". This was usually some sort of fruit cake and different chapels all had their own recipe. Chapel Anniversaries were another social event when special speakers, soloists and choirs would draw in folk from far and wide. And of course an occasion to put on your very best clothes. Those were the days when "Sunday Best" really was just kept for Sunday. A selection of hats on the heads of a selection of aunts outside Barnard Castle Methodist chapel. The occasion was a wedding, but all the hats would then be worn to go to Chapel on Sundays. Rural nonconformity may not have played any part in your life, but it is part of our cultural heritage which is fast disappearing along with so many other rural institutions. Rural life is under valued and is rapidly eroding. We are losing our village schools shops, post offices, pubs, village bus services, cottage hospitals, banks, churches and chapels of all denominations. They represent so many different aspects of life from architecture to education, music to fashion, and we should all mourn their passing. The inside of Middleham Methodist Chapel
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January 2024
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