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St John the Baptist Church In the winter of 1948/49 the vicar asked me if I would take on the duties of what should have been the verger’s responsibilities. Apparently he had nobody to light the furnace to heat the church, fill the lamps with paraffin and be a general dogsbody. I usually filled the lamps on a Saturday afternoon and the lighting of the furnace required me to be at the church at 6.00 am. on a Sunday morning to light the fire and have the church sufficiently heated for the matins service at 11.00 am. and to keep it lit for Evensong.
The biggest problem was that after about an hour of first lighting the furnace I had to go round all of the radiators and bleed the air out of the system otherwise the heated water would not circulate. A couple of visits during the day was all that was required to make sure the fire was burning properly and air hadn't got back into the system.
During 1949 my voice broke and I was unable to sing solo's in the choir, so to help me get over this time of puberty the vicar asked me to be alter boy, which meant I had to change the hymn numbers on the board near the pulpit, light the candles and snuff them out at the end of the service, lead the choir out of the vestry carrying the cross, read the two lessons, and take the collection plate around.
Although it may seem they were a lot of tasks, I took them in my stride and thoroughly enjoyed doing it. I only just had enough time after ringing the bells to dash downstairs, put on my cassock and surplice and be ready to carry the cross. I seemed to spend a lot of the remainder of my time in the village at the church, looking back I have often wondered how I fitted everything in that I did, I was never home.
Wedding 1950 The biggest event to take place during 1950 was the marriage of Cecil Webster to Eileen Mary Kennell on 15th July. It had been many a long day since the church had seen such a crowd, I think just about everybody in the village was there. The attached paper clipping gives the details, the vicar really did himself proud.
I recall that at least half the village went to see them catch the train for their honeymoon. Even the vicar was there, he had taken off his dog collar and became one of the villagers. I remember dad spent hours on the wedding cake, a part of his trade in which he was very proficient and proud.
We even played a joke on the vicar at the reception. Over the past two years when dad had introduced cakes, confectionary and other goodies, the vicar used to come into the bakehouse to "sample" the wares. He developed a sweet tooth, especially for Brandy Snaps. Dad’s Brandy Snaps were usually about four to six inches in length and crammed with fresh cream, but to play a joke on the vicar he made one that was the best part of two feet in length, again filled with fresh cream (see attachment). The joke sort of backfired a bit because not only did he like it, but insisted on being photographed. I don't know how long it took him to devour it, somehow I don't think it was very long. These types of things made village life.
New Bus Service Around about the time of the wedding the bus company decided to introduce a double decker bus service on a Saturday from that of the single decker terminating in Caldecott, to a through service from Raunds to Rushden. The timetable was left untouched and from Raunds it used to stop outside Bernard Dunn's house to pick up passengers and on the return journey would drop you off at the street light in the centre of the village. It was still operating when we left in 1951, how long it continued after I don't know. |
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The Church 1949-50 |
