The First 100 Years

As we look around our renovated and newly-decorated church with a feeling of pleasure, there is little doubt that the 73 subscribers to the fund raised to build a "New Wesleyan Chapel" in Adwick-le-Street were just as pleased in 1887 with the building, which had cost them £396, which in those days was no mean sum. The small brick chapel, with its slate roof, was heated by a pot-bellied stove. There is still a mark on the wall below the clock to show where the stove-pipe went through. AmpIe light came through the large windows, and after dark the paraffin lamps which hung from hooks in the beams could be lit.

The schoolroom was added in 1910, presumably also lit by oil-lamps, but heated by two coal fires. One fire-place was removed during the recent repairs, and the other holds the safe.

After the 1914-18 war the Trust minutes record that water-closets were installed, as was a hot water heating system. The boiler was in a pit in an out-house, which became flooded during rainy weather and had to be pumped out. After the sinking of Brodsworth Colliery the lighting was changed and gas became available (traces of the positions of the gas brackets can be seen on the walls) and this remained until 1928 when electric lighting was provided.

The present organ (replacing a one-manual hand-pumped instrument, which went to Upton) is a Nelson two-manual organ, given by her four daughters in memory of Mrs. Ellen Hinchcliff (Mrs. Thiriwell's grandmother). Some controversy arose over where it should be sited; Mr. Nelson was given a specification which precluded the blocking up of any window. There was feverish activity before the official midweek “opening" of the organ: the electric motor proved to be too noisy and not powerful enough for the blower. So Harold Hall was despatched to Derby to collect a replacement. The tuning of the organ was thus delayed and the opening service had to be performed on the swell stop manual only. Work continued during the afternoon so that the complete instrument could be used for the recital in the evening.

Before the building of the school room, Chapel Teas (such an important part of the social life of Methodism) were held in the coach-house of Manor Farm, just across the road, the home of William and Ellen Hinchcliff. A typical occasion would the the annual visit of the choir of Nether Hall Chapel on the evening of Good Friday to give a concert of Sacred Music.

As long ago as 1922 the then Trustees were considering the purchase of land to the west of the chapel for the extension of the premises, but it was not until the early sixties that the expanding Youth work (led by Glan Morgan and his team of helpers) triggered off the provision of new kitchen and toilet facilities. Several schemes were brought forward until finally, with the aid of various loans and grants from sources such as the Chapel Fund and the Department of Education and Science, the extensions we now have were opened in 1964, during a thick November fog! And the two windows at the far end of the Chapel were blocked up!

 During the first 100 years of its history there have doubtless been many good people who devotedly concerned themselves with the affairs of the chapel. Some were folk who are now only names in the old Trustees Minute books, but a look around the church today will reveal the involvement of just two typical families, both of which in their own way cared for it and the things it stands for: the Smiths of Manor Farm and the Lynes of Fern Bank. Mr. Thomas Smith was appointed a Trustee in 1931: his son Bernard in 1950; as were his daughter Mary and her husband Tom Thiriwell. Mary was organist in the late thirties and early forties and Tom was choirmaster: all were closely involved in the work of the church. It is interesting to find that when the chapel was first authorised for marriages (in the presence of the Registrar) in 1909, the first wedding was that of Thomas Smith and Sarah Hinchcliff: when it was fully licensed for marriages in 1946 (a safe having been provided for the custody of the registers by Miss Connie Marsh of Bentley) the first wedding was that of Mary Smith and Tom Thiriwell. So does history happily repeat itself. Various furnishings, as well as the organ, show the appreciation of the service given to God's work by the family.

In the early twenties there lived at 16 Fern Bank, next door to the chapel, a Mr. Simon Parker, a Trustee. His son Joseph became a Methodist Minister, and Simon went on to become Park-Keeper when the Urban District Council created the Park; he went to live in a council house. Number 16 was taken over in 1927 by Albert and Dorothy Lynes, then newly-wed, whose caring devotion to the chapel and to the folk who used it is indicated by their being known as "Uncle Albert and Auntie I)olly". The Electrical Installations completed at the end of 1986 and dedicated to the memory of Uncle Albert, who died in 1985, have ensured that his work as unpaid caretaker and custodian of the Chapel Keys is remembered every time the Master Switch is used. The many references to them in the reminiscences of former ministers speak for themselves.

We at Adwick-le-Street are fortunate in that there are still those who apply themselves not only to the maintenance of the fabric of the building, but also to the wider witness of the Church, including the Ladies' Bright Hour which was started just before World War II. We hope that the second 1OO years will bring as much happiness and prosperity to the spiritual descendants of those who, in 1887 (in their wisdom), decided to build a new chapel at Adwick-le-Street, replacing an earlier building situated behind the Foresters Arms.