The Royal British Legion Nether Heyford Women’s Section

As stated in the previous Prattler, here is an update on the Poppy Appeal Fundraising over the last couple of months.

Firstly, my thanks to everyone who has been involved in the fundraising and to all the donors who are listed below. If I have missed anyone, please accept my apologies and thanks on behalf of The Royal British Legion. The support given to such a worthy cause is much appreciated.

I have collected the monies given and have paid these into our Bank. The total collected is £622.37.

Jez Wilson published the names earlier, but I would like to thank those that donated who include:

Gary Richmond, Aly & Rich, Joan & Alex, Trev Clarkey, Marie Hanlon, Sarah Hawkins, Birkett family, Jadine, Simon & Debbie, Heyford Athletic FC, Brian and Maxine Edgington, Stu and Emma, Sue & Tony Boutle, Jez Wilson, Gary McMahon, Lesley Faulkner, Jill Garratt, The Gilkes Family, The Wray’s, Lynn Adey, Mark, Sally and Emily Stroman, Ms Patricia Wakeman, Lisa King & many more donors who chose to remain anonymous.

I would also like to thank Claire Green, one of our members, for the donation of £127.30 being the proceeds from the sale of masks and various other items. These were made by the Adult Education Unit which Claire works for. Our heartfelt thanks to these special people who have made a difference.

Our small Branch is always looking for new members so, ladies, if you would like to join and come to our meetings, you would be most welcome. We fund raise and have a meeting on the first Thursday of the month and have some interesting speakers. If you feel that this would interest you, come and join us. Please contact Kath Pancoust, our Branch Secretary, for further details on 01327 340034 or email/message The Prattler and they can connect you with one of the British Legion members so you can find out more about membership.

Kind regards

Caroline Elliott – Treasurer – February 2020

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The Royal British Legion

The Royal British Legion, is a British charity providing financial, social and emotional support to members and veterans of the British Armed Forces, their families and dependants.

There are approximately 2,500 Royal British Legion branches across the UK and overseas. They are focal points for social activity, Remembrance and support the Armed Forces community in all kinds of ways.In local communities they play a vital role in helping hard-to-reach individuals and tackling problems like loneliness and isolation.

https://www.britishlegion.org.uk/

Fundraising page (now closed): https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/netherheyfordbritishlegion

The Story of Heyford (Extra): The Pantomime

Nether Heyford’s Tradition of Pantomime – November 1995

As we approach pantomime season it is worth reminding ourselves that there has been a pantomime in Nether Heyford almost every year since 1969.

The article below written by Joan Juland (November 1995) gives us an insight into the enjoyment given by the Monday Club pantomime to both the audience and performers.

This year, as usual, the Heyford Players continue the tradition with ‘Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” – Performances will be: 7.30 pm on Friday 26th January, and at 2.30 pm and 7.30 pm on Saturday 27th.

The Monday Club pantomimes began in a small way, but grew and grew, and still continue now under the Heyford Players. They started as an alternative to a Christmas party, and were put on in December” mainly because we wanted the worry of it out of the way before settling down to arranging the family Christmas, later they were presented in January so that the main rehearsals were done in the quiet time after New Year. The list to date reads thus:

1969 Red Riding Hood
1970 Goldilocks and the Three Bears
1971 Jack and the Beanstalk
1972 Cinderella
1973 Sleeping Beauty
1974 Dick Whittington
1975 Hey Diddle Diddle
1976 Aladdin
1978 Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
1980 Beauty and the Beast
1981 Mother Goose in Space
1982 Alice in the Underworld
1983 Robinson Crusoe
1984 Snow White
1985 Old King Cole
1986 Jack The Giant Killer
1987 Cinderella
1988 Robin Hood and the Babes in the Wood
1989 Aladdin
1990 Peter Pan and the Magic Snowman

At this point the Monday Club decided to finish doing Pantomimes mainly because our membership numbers had fallen so much that we had many more ‘co-opted‘ members purely to take part in the Pantomime than we had members.

The Heyford Players were then formed and they have continued the tradition ever since with the following:

1991 Dick Whittington
1992 The Adventures of Alice
1993 Sleeping Beauty and the Beast
1994 Ali Babe and the Forty Thieves
1995 Mother Goose

Many names that appear in the programmes for the early shows have sadly passed on, such as Reg Collins, who always enjoyed having a laugh and causing a laugh even if it wasn’t in the script. Molly Dawson who also helped with costumes in the early days, and Mike Wallis who was one of our ‘Ugly Sisters’. Many people who have since moved away, some as far as the USA namely Anne & John Martin who both took part in our events. Bev Sewell, Pam & Glyn Bowen, Suzanne Brett, Gwenda Benstead, Angela Dixon, Sheena Harland and Jeanette Purcell are names that spring to mind but I know there were many others that you will remember, not least of all Tim Short who played a memorable Dame on many occasions and I understand still does so!

We had some ‘accidents’ during our performances that the audiences did not always know about, such as the camp bed that collapsed in Goldilocks when Dave Norrie sat on it and the Aspidestra that was dropped from a great height during a scene change and had to be hurriedly swept up, that was in our first Cinderella .

The lines of a song that Gordon Hayes had difficulty remembering so he wrote them on the back of the beam, and then couldn’t read them because of the lighting, but his wife helped him out from the audience, Kathleen had heard them so often at home she was word perfect .

Do you remember our Growing Beanstalk in Jack and the Beanstalk, and the wonderful wigs in Cinderella as well as the ballgowns. The water fountain in Dick Whittington, which Dick didn’t expect to work, but it had been rigged.

We also had our chorous girls a group of girls mostly the daughters of the cast who sang and danced as fairies or soldiers etc.

We have also had a variety of changing arrangements, for the early performances we had the green curtains pulled round the kitchen corner and had to do everything in there — boys & girls together all very friendly The cast would run down the outside of the hall round the old boiler house that used to jut out, right round to the front of the building and in through the front emergency exit which was curtained off – you can imagine how cold it was on some December nights! We also had to be very quiet, especially on Saturday afternoons when all the children were there and were very inquisitive!

We then had the comfort of the football portacabin, which also meant running through all weathers into the emergency exit. That too was all very well when they were playing away, occasionally they were at home and then we used the Baptist schoolroom — an even longer run through rain and snow!

As many of you will know we were always well supplied in the changing rooms with ‘Dutch Courage’; Sometimes it was tea or coffee, but mostly it was a little stronger, it was the only way we could get some of our cast on stage!!

We tried not to leave out the most important member of the whole show that of the pianist, who was for many years Mrs Marjorie Rogers, The first couple of shows I believe were done by Mrs Betty Sillence, and latterly by David Farmer.

A few weeks after the show we always had an excuse for a party to hold an inquest on the performance and to vow that we wouldn’t do it next year, but we nearly always did and thoroughly enjoyed it for my part for fifteen years.

I was always greatly indebted to my typist who would read my long hand scribbled scripts and make sense of them, often as many as 22 pages, also of course the scenery painters and constructors, props and sound effects which always turned up in time for the performance even if they weren’t thought of until dress rehearsal!

Of course one of the highlights of the day for the children in the early years was the arrival of Father Christmas and the gifts that he brought them.

Joan Juland

Published in The Prattler – November 1995

Beauty and the Beast 1980 – Jeanette Purcell, Pauline Thackray, Chris Metcalfe, Marion Williamson

Nether Heyford’s Tradition of Pantomime – Continued…..December 2020

The Pantomimes continued…….

1996 Snow White
1997 Cinderella
1998 Aladdin
1999 Babes in the Wood
2000 The Emperors New Clothes
2001 Jack and the Beanstalk
2002 Dick Whittington
2003 Peter Pan
2004 Cinderella
2005 Snow White in the Palace

Thanks to Sheryl Scarrott and Pauline Thackray – December 2020

The Story of Heyford (Extra): Pensioners Club – Christmas 1989

NetherHeyfordPensionersClub1989

“My nan Florrie Coles would have been 111 today. This is the Nether Heyford pensioners club in 1989. She came to live with us in 1985 from London and was welcomed into the village by all these lovely people. She is 7th from the left front row, in black. Anyone recognise their relatives ?”

Photograph published on the Facebook group Nether Heyford Past “Thanks for the Memories”

By Jeanette Bradstreet Letts (with Ray Bradstreet & Stephen Bradstreet)

3rd April 2018

Back Row (Left to Right):

Mr Weaver
Mr Denny
Mrs Hardwick (?)
Mrs Smith
Mrs Wallis
Mr Tandy
Mr Jones
Mrs Osborne
Mr Humphrey
Mr Perkin
Mrs Hale
Mrs Peggy Redley
Mr Randall
Mrs Marjorie Hamborg
Mrs June Masters
Mrs Weaver
Mrs Shelia Masters
Mr George Masters

Middle Row (Left to Right):

Mrs Dunkley
Mrs Gowan
Mrs Butt
Miss Reeve
Mrs Lyons
Mrs Wilkes
Mrs Randall

Front Row (Left to Right):

Mrs Kingston / Mary Butcher (?)
Mrs Jones
Mr Fred Browning
Mrs Phyllis Matthews
Mrs Joan Clarke
Mrs King
Mrs Florrie Coles
Miss Weaver
Mrs Cornelius
Mrs Wright
Mrs MeDade (?)

For any corrections/additions to the names please contact Jez Wilson at The Prattler

13/10/2020

The Story of Heyford: Cricket on the Village Green V4C5

Like most villages in England Nether Heyford sported the idyllic sight of twenty two people dressed in immaculate whites playing the age-old sport of Cricket on the Village Green.

A team game remarkably like cricket was being played in England as early as 1300 and by the 1700’s it was being played by the landed aristocracy and so became part of our culture. In the early 1890’s County Cricket was established with clubs being admitted only when the MCC judged their standard to be acceptable and the county of Northamptonshire was admitted in 1905.

The period 1890-1914 is regarded as the golden age of cricket with interest in the sport becoming widespread. Today it is not quite so popular with the young and it is not surprising that India and Pakistan have such magnificent teams as children take up cricket there as soon as they can hold a bat and at week-ends you can see teams and teams of players on any given space practising their skills -far more than even our local lads play football.

The tradition of a local cricket team still goes on in Heyford, but not on the Green. For the last few years you could see Julian Rice and his merry men playing on the well-tended sports ground by the Pavilion built ten years ago and situated just as you enter Heyford from the A45. (The Pavilion used to be the football changing rooms which were moved from the village green to the sports field). Still an idyllic sight but not the same perhaps as when cricket was played in the centre of the village.

The early years

The Cricket Club in Heyford was founded by Henry Isham Longden when he came to the village as Rector in 1897. He was, according to Joan Wake in her book ‘The life of Henry Isham Longden’, fond of cricket and apparently he had played for the Northampton Cricket Club in his curate days, so it is not surprising that he was always ready for a village cricket match. Hevford’s Bob Browning (1892-1997) recalls cricket being played on the green in the early 1900s, but these were in the days of friendlies against neighbouring villages.

There must have been a lapse of all activities during the 1914-1918 war with all able-bodied men fighting, but cricket resumed in the 1920’s. At this time the green was more uneven than it is today as it was grazed by cows. There was continual debate about whether a proper pitch could be laid. According to the rules laid down for the management of the green no digging could take place, and much argument went on about laying such a pitch. However agreement was eventually reached and a wicket turf was laid on the centre part of the green by Jack Nickolls and Tommy Kingston.

In the 1920’s the Heyford team consisted of such people as Bert Thompson, Frank Reeve, Bob Foster, Dick Foster and Ron Humphrey. They played friendlies against local villages, Farthingstone and Everdon. Before each match nets were erected along the far side of the green to protect the windows and slates of the houses nearby. And of course they all met afterwards in the clubroom of the Foresters Arms.

In the 1930’s the players included Bill Kingston, Bernard North, Charlie Copson, Jack Butcher, Dennis Clarke and Reg Collins. The main umpire for Heyford was Sonny Thompson and they played against Everdon, Pattishall, Astcote, Bugbrooke, Kislingbury and Harpole. Bill Kingston recalls that before they could play they had to make up the pitch. They had to fill in the holes, patch it, turf it and roll it because the cows had been on it all week! And according to Charlie Copson the pitch was so well prepared that it was used on Friday evenings for tennis matches.

Cricket as it appeared on the Green in the 1940’s and 1950’s

NetherHeyford_Cricket_1

NetherHeyford_Cricket_2

The team in the 1960’s

NetherHeyford_Cricket_3

Standing, left to right: Jack Draper, Peter Brodie, John Draper, Michae Ingray, Norman Fonge, Bernard North, Ron Copson, Bert Thornicroft, Ben Spokes

Kneeling, left to right: Dennis Clarke, Jim Blood, Harry Haynes, Charlie King, Reg Collins

Twenty years without a club

Then the cricket ceased. In the Sunday Telegraph a few weeks before Easter 1999, it was reported “The village Cricket Club has been forced to close after the wives and friends of the players refused to make their teas”. This, I hasten to add, was not what happened to Heyford. By the 1950’s Tommy Rolfe had left the Foresters and houses had been built alongside the green between Middle Street and the Post Office, making it difficult to protect them against damage from the balls. Also there were few young men in the village in the post war years because many were moving to town to take advantage of modern work and housing opportunities.

In the Mercury & Herald November 6th 1969 a little piece about Nether Heyford appeared. “Heyford is developing fast with an attractive diversity of new and stylish housing running in price to the five figure bracket, but in the heart of the village the scene remains much the same as half century ago – thanks to the preservation of one of the most expansive village greens in England. It is a curious fact, however, that Nether Heyford has no cricket club. It used to have one but the young people have cars these days and go where they will for their sport and pleasure”.

The club reformed

However, on the 16th June 1977 a meeting was held with Charles King asking the question “Would it be possible to raise a cricket team in the village?” and no article about cricket in Nether Heyford would be complete without a mention of Dave Jenkinson who, after this initial meeting, was elected Chairman of the newly reformed Cricket Club with Charles King, who lived in Hillside Road, becoming the Secretary.

Charles told the local paper that when they had started up again they played half-a-dozen evening games with limited overs to test out the interest. But with no pitch and little equipment and the green being used all winter for football, it was becoming very difficult to keep interest going. He reported that “we’ve had talks with a local farmer about using one of his fields, but at the moment we’re playing all our matches away from home; we book pitches on places like the Racecourse in Northampton. But the real snag about a square on the green, is that we’d need to spend £160 on safety netting along the roadside”.

Thus a new venue for cricket was being called for. Plans for playing fields were being started and fund-raising events taking place. And an apt headline appeared in the paper: “Cricketers bat on and refuse to be stumped”.

Discos at the Foresters Arms followed and on December 23rd 1977 a Christmas Supper Dance was held, music by the Neal Stanton Band, and tickets at £2.50. At this time the membership fee of the Cricket Club was £1 a head and the match fees 10p per game. More and more local people became involved with the Club and Mrs. Rosemary Haddon was elected Treasurer having the grand sum of £155.4p in the kitty.

In 1978 on the 25th May the Mercury and Herald reported some memories from Mr. Albert Garrett who was clerk to the parish council for 35 years and at that time 79 years old. “We used to play cricket on the green” he said “they’ve just started the club up again. I played until I was 60” and he laughed. “We used to break a lot of windows but this time I think they’re getting something to protect them. Even so, we always had a collection to pay for them, especially for one old chap who had his broken regularly.”

And in 1982 when Dave Tite was secretary, the Club was looking back to 1977, the year that Heyford Cricket Club was reformed and remarking on how well the club was doing since it started without money, equipment or fixtures. In March 1983 Geoff Garrett was voted Captain and Paul Horrocks was persuaded to take on the job of fund raising- a difficult but necessary job in the circumstances. They had a full fixture list and entered for the Watney Mann Cup.

All matches ‘away’

In 1984 still without proper grounds the Cricket Club flourished, meetings were held still at The Foresters Arms with Mine Hosts Alf and Marg Parker and youngsters were being recruited. At the Parish Council Annual Meeting members raised the subject of their need for practice nets in the village, perhaps on the green, and these “would not take up a great deal of room and could be used by the School and would add to the attractions of the village”. If you look at the fixture list for July 1984 you will see that not one of the matches were played at home. And amusingly on the front of the fixture list you will see the following:

REMEMBER:

It is better to have played and lost than never to have played at all.

(Gayton excepted)

At the 7th AGM of the Heyford Cricket Club on Sunday, 31st March 1985, the Chairman reported sadly that there was now no prospect of home fixtures being played within the Parish Boundary but that it was to be hoped that progress on the Heyford Playing Fields project would mean a ray of hope for future seasons.

The following report in September in the Prattler went “Came second to Ryland 0/B’s in the Clenbury / Haine Shield. Lost in the final. Watney Mann Cup got through to the second round by having a bye in the preliminary round – and beating Gayton in the first round. Lost to Buqbrooke in the second round. We have started a Youth Team with the lads doing most of their own organising. They have been going for about six months and have had two fixtures against very good sides. They tied their first game against Wootton Youth and narrowly lost to Rylands Under 15’s. They have a practise net on the Green every Monday evening. The lads show a lot of promise and hopefully next season we call get them into a league through the Cricket Association. “

But it was to be some time before cricketers could enjoy the game on their home turf. An article appeared in February 1987 stating that “The Parish Council, through its Leisure and Amenities Committee, has been looking into the possibility of acquiring enough land to provide a playing field for the use of the inhabitants of both Nether and Upper Heyford. This matter was also discussed at the last Annual Parish Council meeting. A steering group has been formed to consider the matter, and the outcome of their enquiries to date is that Mr. J Spokes of Upton is prepared to sell approximately 10 acres of land, which seems to be ideally suited to a games area. The land forms part of a flat field, which is situated behind the allotments and Mrs. Smith’s field on the Upper Road.”

The team in 1980

NetherHeyford_Cricket_4

This photograph, taken on Jeremy Rice’s front lawn, shows the team as proud winners in 1980 of the Clenberry / Haine Shield.
Standing: Julian Rice, Ray Haddon, Dave Tite, Tony Charville, G Starmer, Graham Drake
Seated: Alex Kirkbride, Geoff Garrett, Geoff Sturgess, Mike Tharby

Home turf at last

In July 1988 the cricket square was making good progress “thanks to the efforts of the Grounds Committee headed by Jeremy Rice.” And in 1989 Geoff Sturgess of Hillside Crescent was very encouraged by the good turnout for the Youth Cricket Under 16’s Team as nets were now available down on the Playing Field.

In the Prattler, May 1989, the following article appeared compiled by Alex Kirkbride:

“The merry click of bat against the ball, the expectant rush, the cheering that proclaims skill of the greatest of all English games; Flutter of the flags, the branches of the trees swaying beneath the summer breeze; No sweeter music in the world is found than that upon an English cricket ground.

R Ratcliffe Ellis; Cricket Music

Yes, the dream is now a reality. Heyford Cricket Club is back at home”.

And now in 1999 Simon Legge has taken over the captaincy from Julian Rice and will lead his team in League Cricket. The village Green has seen the very last of the cricket but thanks to all the efforts of the stalwarts of the village, the cricket heritage will continue.

With grateful thanks to Barbara Haynes, Julian Rice and Dave Tite

Julie Rands-Allen

Extract from “The Story of Heyford” – Local book series published in the late 1990’s

Volume 4 of 4 | Chapter 5 of 8 | Pages 22 to 27

Heyford’s Historical Heritage | How the books were created

Index | Covers

The Story of Heyford: The Methodist Chapel V1C3

The chapel buildings
Methodism was very much a part of village life in Heyford for almost 130 years. It ﬂourished from the 1830s until the 1960s. The ﬁrst chapel was built in 1838. This was the small red brick building which still stands at the top of Church Street, immediately to the left of the Heyford Stores. It has a barn style roof with a single beam across the middle, and there was originally no ﬂoor upstairs. It has a blank plaque on the front wall and it still has signs of the tall chapel windows. It was converted to a private house in the 1870s.

According to the religious census of 1851 there was a general congregation of 50 in the afternoon and 50 in the evening. lt is hard to see how this number of people would have fitted into such a small building. It must have been standing room only.

In 1879 the existing building in Church Street was erected. lt was built by Alfred Marsh on land donated by Thomas Faulkner, and services continued to take place there until the early 1960s.

The founding family
There is a typescript in the Northamptonshire Record Office, unsigned and undated, which gives some details of one of the families involved in much of the chapel’s history. This typescript refers to Mrs J.S. Gammage who as a young girl around the turn of century was of the fourth generation of village Methodism. It records how, ‘in 1835 when the early pioneers of primitive Methodism missioned the village of Heyford from Northampton, Mrs Gammage’s great-grandmother gave them a welcome and shelter. She also helped in 1838 to secure the first Methodist Chapel in Heyford, owned by the Northamptonshire circuit, at a cost of £65, furniture included.’

Mrs Gammage’s mother ‘was given to hospitality. The saints of god found shelter and refreshment beneath her roof.’ Her father, Thomas Faulkner piloted the chapel for over 50 years until his death in 1917. ‘No man was more typical of the staunch Methodist and radical stock of the Victorian age than Thomas Faulkner. The oppressed looked to him for succour, and the poor found in him a friend. The earliest impressions that the writer of this document had of Mrs Gammage (which must have been around the 1880s) was ‘of a little girl dressed all in white, asking the local preacher for the hymns in the new chapel, then after the service taking him home to her fathers house to tea and introducing him to the missionary box, and pleading the cause of the little black boys and girls in a far-off land.’ The musical service at Heyford also owed much to Mrs Gammage. ‘At the age of twelve she took charge of the organ and became secretary of the Sunday School, and later became choirmaster.’

MrsFaulkner

Mrs Gammage’s mother, Mrs T.G. Faulkner.

The chapel interior
At the rear of the chapel was a gallery in which there was a large pump organ with two keyboards and a series of pipes. For almost fifty years from the early 1900’s this organ was played by Mrs Evelyn Clarke, a daughter of Wesley Faulkner and grand-daughter of Thomas Faulkner. Her two sons Keith and Dennis both remember operating the hand pump. Keith remembers how he had to watch a gauge which showed how much air was in the organ. When the gauge reached a certain level you had to pump air in by hand. It was tempting to allow the gauge to run low and risk silence in the middle of one of the hymns as the organ ran out of air. Dennis remembers as a youngster how the services seemed to be long and boring. Either side of the organ in the gallery was seating for the congregation. Downstairs, just inside the door there was a pulpit and there were wooden pews stretching to the back of the church. The carpets and upholstery were supplied and maintained by Pearce’s of Northampton and were rich blue in colour. The windows at the front of the church were stained glass and included the images of Mr and Mrs Thomas Faulkner.

The chapel business
Also in the Northampton Record Office is a the ‘minute book of the Heyford Trustees and Chapel Committee’ which has periodical entries between 1925 and 1960. Below are some details from this book which give a ﬂavour of life in the chapel during that period.

May 1925 — it was agreed ‘that we install electric light at the Heyford Church and school’

June 1929 – an envelope system was established to enable members to ‘promise to contribute the sum of … per week towards the amount required for carrying on the work above church.’

Mrs Ralph Clarke 6d / W Faulkner 3d / Miss Furniss 6d / Mr and Mrs Furniss 1s Od’ / Mrs Thompson 3d / Alice Eales 3d

Feb 1937 – the general chapel committee acting on behalf of the Methodist Conference paid a grant of £10 ‘to aid the extinction of the debt of the Lower Heyford Methodist Chapel’ and also ‘that the trust should be renewed before long as the number (of trustees) living is now only ﬁve.’

]an 1938 – ‘we record that Miss Furniss be reappointed secretary, that Mrs Humphrey be the treasurer, that Mrs Clarke be reappointed organist, that the assistants be Miss Furniss and Miss Faulkner, that Mrs King be reappointed caretaker with remuneration as before, that the property stewards be Mr Warwick and Mr Faulkner’

Jan 1939 – ‘that Mr Arthur Humphrey be asked to procure a new ash bin’

Nov 1940 – ‘we record with sincere regret the death cy‘ one of our members brother Wesley N T Faulkner who passed away on Oct 19th 1940 and was buried in the Lower Heyford cemetery. Mr Faulkner had an almost lifelong association with the church… he was a local preacher, a class leader and a society steward’

Feb 1941 – the minutes refer to ‘Heyford Methodist Chapel (formerly Primitive Methodist)’

July 1941 — ‘that we receive with pleasure the gift of land adjoining the chapel from Mrs Wesley W Faulkner’

July 1942 — ‘that the repairs done by Mr W ] Denny to the front boundary wall of the chapel have been satisfactorily completed and that the bill of £22.7s.4d has been paid’

Dec 1949 – ‘the meeting received with joy the inspiring and generous offer of Messrs Pearce regarding the renovations of the interior of the church… it was agreed that Mr Pearce ’s suggestion that the organ be brought down into the body of the church and the gallery be partitioned off be adopted’ .

Feb 1953 – ‘as the pipe organ had not been brought down into the church as agreed because of its need of repair, the minister offered to enquire whether it had been disposed of as being beyond repair. No deﬁnite information had reached the trustees as to its condition and whereabouts. It was noted that it had been in working order when removed. ’

Feb 1959 – ‘new heating arrangements were discussed and it was decided to have electric convector heaters installed, these to be obtained through the kindness of Messrs Pearce and Co at wholesale prices’

Feb 1960 — ‘we record with sincere regret the passing of our dear friend and brother Mr Luther Furniss u/ho served the church in so many ways’

The Methodist chapel in the late 1930s

MethodistChapel_NetherHeyford

Photo lent by ]udy Armitage.

The end of an era
The last people to be married in the chapel were Keith and Brenda Clarke in 1953. The last christenings were of their children Elaine and Trevor. The congregation by this time was very small, certainly smaller than that of the Baptist chapel.

Keith & Brenda Clarke Wedding 1953

Brenda&Keith_Clarke

Photo from Trev Clarke, 2019 “The last wedding to be held there, my mum and dad – Brenda and Keith Clarke”

By 1962 the chapel had virtually ceased to function. All the original trustees had died, and some of the few remaining members transferred to the Baptist chapel. In 1963 some of the pews, together with the stained glass windows which depicted members of the Faulkner family, were also moved from the Methodist to the Baptist chapel.

Between 1962 and 1965 there was considerable legal correspondence to establish ownership of the chapel, and of the land adjacent to it that had been donated. In 1965 it was ﬁnally sold to the Northamptonshire Association of Youth Clubs, and the Youth Club was formally opened in the Autumn of that year. After 130 years, Methodism in Heyford had come to an end.

Stephen Ferneyhough

Stained Glass Windows