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Sunday Schools in Lenton, as I remember in the 1920's and 1930's, both
our Church of England and the four non-conformist chapels, were very
well attended. The Church of England schools were held on a Sunday
afternoon in the respective church halls, there being Manfull Street
Mission Hall, Parish Church Schools (facing the Church), Priory Hall,
Dunkirk Sunday School (held in the day school), St. Mary's Wollaton
Park and St. Barnabas Lenton Abbey. Each school had its
superintendent and a goodly following of teachers.
In addition to the Sunday schools there were two Bible classes held in
the Priory Church, one for young men led by Fred Stowell junior, and
the one for young ladies in charge of Miss Elsie Drury (who married
and became Mrs. Needham). Some of these Bible class members would go
forward to be Sunday school teachers. In the early part of the
century it was necessary to take up quite a study of the Prayer book
and Bible in order to pass the examinations to qualify for a Sunday
school teacher.
There must have been some stalwart workers in the Church in those days
to provide the various services (and time they devoted to the Church).
To mention one or two names, I think of Leonard Lows who, in addition
to being a most regular member of the Lenton Priory Church choir all
his life, was also superintendent of the Dunkirk Sunday school for
almost forty years. His sister, Hettie, was a teacher at the same
time, to be followed by Leonard's son Jack who also served many years
in the choir.
There was also Miss Ida Hallam and Miss Fordham who were so devoted to
their life-long work in the Sunday school.
At the present there is one who has seen the change in our numbers of
Sunday school attenders, and is still doing yeoman work among the few
who still come, having given half a century of service in this sphere.
We might say that there would have been no school had she not
continued, sometimes singly, to keep things going. This stalwart is
Miss May Hillery who is also a regular member of the choir, and a
member of the Nottingham Harmonic choir.
Tom Wood was in charge at the Priory Hall Sunday school, among his
teachers being his daughter and son, and Miss Cooper and Miss
Carmichael.
The Sunday schools met once a month in their respective Church on a
Sunday afternoon, and the Priory hall and Dunkirk schools met in the
Priory Church. The Curate-in-charge would take the service and was
usually preaching to a "full house". Manfull Street and the Parish
church scholars would go to the Parish Church where the Vicar would
usually take the service.
Once a year there would be a Sunday schools Festival held on the
Lenton Recreation ground or, if the weather was not favourable, in the
Parish Church, at which the Parish Church district and the Priory
scholars held a joint service.
Annually, usually in July, all the Sunday schools in the Parish
gathered for their outing and tea party. In the early days it was a
choice of two local spots, either Wollaton Park before it became a
public park, or to the fields at the rear of Lenton Hurst, the
residence of Mr. W.G. Player, on Adams Hill.
Everyone in the Parish assembled on the Lenton Recreation ground,
where there was some sorting out to be done to get everyone into
marching order, to be headed by a band and the Sunday schools banner
being carried by several of the stronger types. (The banner is still
in the Parish Church).
If Wollaton Park was our destination we would enter through the gates
at the Lenton Lodge, which gates we did not very often see open, then
walk through the park (which was completely undeveloped at that time)
to the Hall. When the event was at Mr. Player's house we marched
along Derby Road to Adams Hill, to be let "loose" in the fields at the
rear of the house. Reading an old magazine of 1911 I found the
itinerary for a similar outing. I cannot imagine this type of
instruction being given today. It read:
"The annual Sunday school treat will, by kind permission of
Mr. W.G. Player, be held in the grounds of Lenton Hurst, on Saturday
July 15th. Scholars will assemble at 2 p.m. and march from the Parish
church schools in the following order -
The Parish church boys
The Parish Church senior girls
The Parish Church junior girls
The Priory School
The Dunkirk School
The Manfull Street Mission.
No scholars will be admitted into the grounds save those who are in
the procession. Any ashamed of being in it are those of whom the
school may be ashamed."
Usually the "toddlers" were conveyed on horse drawn dray, eventually
by motor-lorry. It was necessary to lay straw on the bottom of the
wagon as it was quite possible the transport had been carrying
building materials during the week. Later years saw the more
adventurous outings further afield, travelling (after a ceremonial
march to the Radford Railway Station) to Codnor Park. As an
alternative we went to Bleasby station from where we walked to the
field at Lowdham. A special appeal was made to the congregation to
defray the expenses for treats of this sort. In a magazine, previous
to one such outing, the appeal went out:
"May we ask that the same kind and liberal contributions may be
forthcoming from our congregations and friends to meet the large
expense of a treat for our 1200 to 1300 scholars and teachers"
Each school organised a Christmas party for its scholars, and these
were always greatly looked forward to and enjoyed. The fall in number
of children attending Sunday schools, especially in Lenton Parish, was
possibly due to World War II. Many of the young people who married
during the war years and post-war were unable to find accommodation
locally. Remember no houses were built during the war years while
many men were not at home to obtain a house even if one had become
vacant. New properties were built outside the Lenton area when the
building programme resumed post-war and young couples had to move out
to where they could obtain accommodation. As the older type houses in
Lenton eventually became vacant they were occupied by immigrants, many
of whom were not of our religion.
In addition people's habits changed, especially as more people were
able to afford the luxury of a motor-car, which meant the family went
out for the day or half-day. Also television, and functions and
places of amusement, which pre-war would not have been open to the
public, became the pattern of life on Sundays.
We have recently seen the introduction of an informal Family Service
for parents and family, parents only, or children only, known as
"Sunday at Ten". This is held in the Parish Church previous to the
normal morning service, conducted by the vicar and seems to have got
off to a very good start. This in itself does give a good start to the
day for the children or family, whether or not they are able to attend
any further services on that day.
There in an area of the Parish Church set apart for the children,
known an the "children's corner". It was in 1946 that it was decided
to set out a corner for the children, situated between the west
entrance doors and the font. The idea was to supply suitable
scripture, pictures, books and literature ready at hand where children
could sit and read. This was further developed when children's
furniture, chairs and tables, and an oak dividing panel, was made and
installed by the boys of the local Cottesmore School to celebrate
their 21 years in Lenton.
The Cottesmore Girls' contribution to this corner was eight kneeling
mats, a needle-work picture and a sampler. The picture is of the
Madonna and Child while the sampler, started by a girl in 1888 and
left unfinished until taken up by the girl from Cottesmore was
completed in time for the dedication on 16th March 1953.
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