Souvenir Programme of Buckley Congregational Schoolroom Re opening Celebrations p. 9 Foreword with Photograph of Keyworth Lloyd Williams "

Saint John's Congregationl Church Sunday Schoolroom, Buckley

23 June 1938

SOUVENIR OF THE BUCKLEY SAINT JOHN'S CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH SCHOOLROOM RE-OPENING CELEBRATIONS

Entries covering this programme are 206.1 - 206.18

To see all the entries, enter 23.6.1938 in the DATE FIELD, plus 28.354

Below are p.9, p.10, p.12 and p.17

p.9

FOREWORD

Every deed is the expression of a dream. Every achievement presupposes aspiration. Faith is the heart of all advance and the fountain of effective effort. This Church was born of vision, conviction and faith. It was the knowledge that Jesus insisted upon loyalty to the personal vision of truth implying as this does, liberty of thought, of conscience and of speech, and the knowledge that men and women girls and boys on this district were living undeveloped, stunted and sordid lives, tortured by fear and undermined by sin, ignorant of the new life possible through God in Christ, that inspired the founders of the Church in 1792.

From the beginning there was keen interest in the well being of child-life, as is evidenced by the fact that Mr. Wm. Catherall, son of the founder, built a School and paid the salary of a School-master so that the children should not be compelled to attend National School. The romance of the story of the Church and Chapel premises, which we shall be celebrating in 1942 must ever thrill heart and soul with its record of faith, adventure and willing sacrifice, revealing as it does how our fathers and our forefathers sought to provide for the needs and life of the coming generation.

It is of interest to recall that when the Church had decided to erect a new Chapel, (the present building on the site of the hallowed but much dilapidated sanctuary) while the majority were enthusiastic, there were others who prophesied that it would mean the ruin of the Church and the crippling of her life and witness by the incumbus of a debt that could never be wiped out.

The enthusiasm displayed in connection with Fetes organised during recent years and the response made to the special appeal in connection with this present enterprise, demonstrated that there is the same keenness to make our premises efficient, beautiful, and effective for the demands made upon them as dwelt in the heart of those who toiled here in years past.

Two features have marked the development of Church life within recent years; the one, the increasing part taken in all Church work by the ladies of the Church; the other, the growing desire on the part of the young people that the Church should not only be a place of worship on Sunday, but a centre of social life and fellowship during the week, providing especially in places such as our district, facilities for the development and exercise of all gifts and for the recreational side of life which is destined to be such a power for good or for evil in the years ahead. We believe that the Christian Church has a chance in these days of capturing "leisure" for the highest ends, and not to leave it to be exploited by those whose aims and objects of life have little, if anything in common with the ideal life revealed in Jesus.

With hearts as grateful to God for His guidance and blessing, let us make out Re-opening the occasion for a fresh dedication to His will and a fuller opening of our hearts to His Spirit.

KEYWORTH LLOYD-WILLIAMS.

p.10

A FEW HISTORICAL NOTES

To appreciate the importance of the steps which led to the commencement of the first Nonconformist Cause in this neighbourhood, shall we briefly recall the circumstances governing opportunities for worship in those days? Not only was it illegal to hold religious services without first obtaining a licence to worship, but it was considered disreputable to be associated with any nonconformist sect at that time, and in relation to these facts, we derive some idea of the earnestness and courage of those early

Leaders. Impelled by their religious convictions, and refusing to conform to the accepted modes of worship, bravely and sacrificially they held there Nonconformity.

The Buckley Congregational Church commenced in 1792, (one account says 1790) services being held in a pottery shed on the Common (on the site where Mr. Edwin Lamb's House now stands) The founder was Mr. Jonathan Catherall who founded the Buckley Fireclay Industry soon after 1740. Services where also held in Mr. Catherall's house, and in 1804, after much opposition, the dining room of his house (later named Hawkesbury) was licensed as a Dissenters Meeting place. In 1811, for the increasing number of worshippers, the old Chapel was built by Mr. Catherall and about a year later, its first Minister, a Mr. Powell, commenced his Ministry. Services were held at 10 o'clock, 2 o'clock and 6 o'clock, the morning one being in English and the other two in Welsh.

In 1813, 80 scholars attended Sunday School, the Misses Martha and Francis Catherall, daughters of Mr. Jonathan Catherall, being the teachers, and this school was also used as a day school. Reviewing the long period of its history, it is difficult for us to realise that in the early days of the Sunday School, it was no unusual thing to see men of 30 or 40 years of age in the A.B.C. class, but so persevering were they, and so devoted their teachers, that many of them became readers of the Old and New Testaments.

Mr. Willett, the Hawarden Historian, wrote the following tribute to the work of the Nonconformists in Buckley in 1822. "These men, the their credit be it spoken, arrested the vicious and intemperate career of the young, the ignorant and the licentious of this quarter of the parish, and rendered them more correct in the principles and more orderly in their conduct, and this tribute of applause, truth and justice requires to be acknowledged"

Increasing congregations, and need for renovation of the old Chapel, let in 1870, to the decision to build the present Chapel, and the Old Chapel, dear to members of the congregation, had to be pulled down, It is interesting to recall that as much as was fit of the old material was incorporated in the building of the new structure, completed in 1792, after a great effort on the part of members and adherents. A contemporary report says, "Here are men of the right stamp, they not only give the utmost they can afford, but, in addition they set to, to make bricks for the Chapel, after doing a hard day's work". The women of the Church vigorously took up the task of collecting, and their efforts raised a round sum of £300.

From its commencement some 146 years ago, until the present day, the Congregational Church and Sunday School have exercised a great influence over the community of this and other districts, and its sons and daughters, at home, and in distant places, have rendered rich services in Christian work. These brief notes close, as did a History of this Church, written nearly 50 years ago by an old member of that time : "So the old pass away, the young taking their place, to preserve the work of a great Cause, the spiritual birthplace of may now living, as well as of many worshipping around the throne of God.

"Young men and women, to your care is committed the keeping of the past, as we have it in the present, I play you, use it for yourselves, for the neighbourhood, and for God".

LIST OF MINISTERS OF THE BUCKLEY CONGRGATIONAL CHURCH

Rev. Mr. Powell

Rev. Thomas Jones

Rev. John Saunders

Rev. Mr. Davies

Rev. John Griffith

Rev. Ambrose Jones

Rev. J. D. Thomas

Rev. H. Elvet Lewis

Rev. Hallet Williams

Rev. Jonathan Evans

Rev. T. Mardy Rees

Rev. D. Emrys James

Rev. David Evans

Rev. Keyworth Lloyd-Williams

p.12

HOW IT CAME ABOUT

During the last twenty years, from time to time, the need of improvements in the Schoolroom has been realised and discussed. The failure of the heating apparatus, resulting in the generally expressed opinion that it was no longer reasonable to expect folk to meet in a room so cold and cheerless brought matters to a head. At the same time the development of the social side of Church life made the need of kitchen facilities desirable.

At the annual Church Meeting on February 1^st 1937, a recommendation from the Finance Committee, endorsed by the Diaconate, that immediate steps betaken to deal with the heating apparatus, and their constructional alterations in the schoolroom, was unanimously agreed upon. After the whole question had been surveyed by a specially appointed committee, drawn from the Sunday School, Ladies Guild and the Young People's Guild, the Church in May 1937 decided to call in as Architect, Mr. Lloyd Roberts, Mold, and formed a Committee to act with him in formulating proposals to be recommended to the Church. To the specially called Church Meeting on June 14^th 1937, the two schemes commended by this committee were submitted, and the plans covering the Reconstruction of the School Vestry and the erection of a new kitchen and the installation of the new heating apparatus were unanimously chosen. The Church Meeting then decided to submit this recommendation to the Church at the close of worship on Sunday evening, June 27^th and a vote by ballot be taken. This was done, and by a handsome majority the Church re-affirmed its decision.

When the plans were submitted to the Surveyor, Mr. Bannister Jones, he insisted that the whole of the drainage must be overhauled and to this the Church had no option but to agree.

Tenders were invited and that of Messrs. Wright and Barker, Hawarden, was accepted for the structural alterations and that of Messrs. F. J. Proud & Sons, Chester, for the heating installation.

On February 21^st 1938, the contract was signed on behalf of the Church by Messrs J. H. Bellis, Chas. Griffiths, Dennis Griffiths, Wm. Hannaby, Ernest Jones & Simon Williams, and the work was put in hand immediately.

The question of providing the Schoolroom with electric light and power was raised during February, and after consultation with the North Wales Electricity Supply Co. the scheme they submitted was adopted by the Church.

The following figures are of interest-

Heating installation 64 0 0

Reconstruction School Vestry

New Kitchen457 0 0

Sanitation Scheme103 0 0

Electric lighting 37 0 0

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TOTAL £661 0 0

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It should be pointed out that the necessary alterations to the Chapel House are included in the last two items. A scheme of redecoration has also been carried out by J. Satterthwaite.

It remains but to place on record our satisfaction with the way the work has been carried out, and to express the hope that our School premises will be increasingly a centre of happy fellowship and mutual inspiration.

p.17

CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH BUCKLEY

Minister..Rev. K. Lloyd-Williams

List of Officers 1938

DEACONS

Mrs. Ada Griffiths, Mrs. M. E. Cropper, Messrs T. Crozier Jones, J. H. Bellis, J. W. Jones, T. J. Evans, John Shepherd (Mold Road) W. Hannaby, Ernest Jones, Alfred Balshaw, J. Simon Williams, W. Prynallt.

Secretary Ernest Bolton, Poplar House, Buckley

Treasurer Mr. J. H. Bellis

Financial Sec. Mr. R. H. Bellis

Organist Mr. D. Griffiths

Caretaker Miss E. Shone

SUNDAY SCHOOL

Supt.Mr. John Shepherd

Sec.Mr. Gordon Taylor

Treas.Mr. T. L. Griffiths

LADIES GUILD

Sec. Mrs. D. GriffithsTreas. Mrs. F. Hughes

FINANCE COMMITTEE

Messrs A. Balshaw, Ed. Bellis, Ted Bellis, W. Edwards, D. Griffiths, W. Hannaby, John Jones, J. W. Jones, T. e. Jones, C. Kelsall, P. Wilcock, J. S. Williams and other officials.

L,M.S. Sec. Mr. T. L. Griffiths

NORTH WALES UNION COLLECTORS

Mrs. G. Lewis, Misses J. Taylor, H. Pepper, M. Balshaw, G. Balshaw, Mr. W. Edwards

GRAVE YARD FUND COLLECTORS

Misses Cassie Jones and Rene Wilcock

DELEGATES

May meeting…..Rev. K. Lloyd-Williams

North Wales Union…..T. Crozier Jones & Sec.

Flintshire County Union - Messrs J. W Jones & T. J. Evans (subject to alteration)

Author: Lloyd-Williams, Keyworth

Souvenir Programme of Buckley Congregational Schoolroom Re opening Celebrations p. 9 Foreword with Photograph of Keyworth Lloyd Williams "

Saint John's Congregationl Church Sunday Schoolroom, Buckley

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