Last updated at 10:41, Monday, 18 June 2012

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IT might be small but it has survived with a loyal following for generations. In these secular times, the historic Whitehaven Town Mission on Rosemary Lane has managed to keep going – and this summer marks 156 years since its foundation.

Many small places of worship, chapels and missions, that once could be found on almost every street in Whitehaven have long since disappeared – Kirk Mission, Charles Street, Seaman’s Bethel, Kells Methodist, Hogarth Mission, all long gone. Bigger church buildings too have gone the same way – the Congregational Church, the Lowther Street Methodist (still standing but unused), Trinity Church and Christ Church, although their followers now worship elsewhere.

So why does the Town Mission, that little sandstone building half way up Rosemary Lane, once known as Mount Mission, stand fast and survive?

Well it’s undoubtedly down to a small dedicated band of followers, most of whom now in their 70s and 80s, who started attending the Sunday School when they were three or four.

Nowadays, the three trustees Brenda Ashburne (chairman), Christine McGregor (treasurer) and Margaret Shackley (secretary) keep things running. All have been life-long members and Margaret, aided by her husband Harold, ensure the building is kept in tip-top condition.

Margaret was a young girl when she first went to the Mission Sunday School and both her daughters were married there. It holds a very special place in her heart.

Other townspeople, too, have fond memories of a place where they would first learn about the scriptures, go on jolly outings and have teas and Christmas parties.

Eva Elliott (née Williams) remembers being just a girl when she started going to the Sunday School in 1933. That was the year Mr Symons was appointed Missioner and an oak pulpit was installed as a memorial to his predecessor, the late James Davidson, who served a 32-year ministry with the church.

The trustee minute records show that in 1906 the work of the mission was “still being energetically carried on by the missionary Mr J Davidson”.

“At the Sunday evening service the hall is filled, there is a large Sunday School, Bible Class and Band of Hope.’’

Says Eva: “When I started going, there was a large attendance on Sunday afternoons. You’d see lots of children walking down the hill, past Windy Corner from the Prospect area and yet more coming up from the town, up Mounts Steps or via Rosemary Lane.

“We didn’t need our parents to take us – the older children looked after the younger ones and there was no traffic to speak of.

“Once a year, at the annual anniversary, prizes were given out to the children for good attendance and I still have a couple that I won.

“I well remember our teachers, Mr Mason, Miss Hudson, Miss Mullen and Mrs Wallace. Mr Symons was the new missioner. He was unmarried and lodged with Mrs Glaister on Woodville Terrace.

“Every summer we had a trip to Seascale when games and races were held on the beach and everyone got a bag of food to eat.

“If it was raining we would go inside the church rooms at Seascale Methodist Church. I only remember the outing being cancelled once – maybe it was the year war broke out – and we held our games in the field behind the mission.

“My mother and a lot of Basket Road neighbours would attend evening service at the Mission and would all help out with teas and sales of work when there was fundraising to be done.”

Sadly, due to falling numbers, the Sunday School closed in 1982.

In 2006 the Town Mission celebrated its 150th anniversary and it was an occasion for former parishioner Mona Fletcher (née Bell) then in her 70s and living in Leicestershire, to recall her nostalgic childhood recollections:

“My earliest memories are sitting with my mother, sister and brother, alongside my two grandmothers (Jean A Bell and Emily Martha Little) opposite the lovely warm stove. My father, John Bell (retired cemetery curator) was in the choir, along with members of the Heslop and Postlethwaite families. Later, my brother Jack (John George) helped with keeping the organ pumped up for the organist, who was our great-uncle John.

“Sunday School was taken by Mr John Wallace and Miss Maggie Mullen, who later married in the Mission. When I was older I joined the choir along with Betty Heslop, Betty Hargreaves, Belle Burney (whose mother Lizzie was also in the choir), and Lily Mason. We also sang at the Kirk Mission, the Sailors Rest and the Hogarth Mission. As a choir we sometimes sang to the people at Meadow View House – they loved the choruses.

“My father was Sunday School superintendent, later followed by George Mason. When the Mission was licensed for marriages George Heslop and his bride were the first to be married there, followed by John Wallace and Maggie Mullen. The caretakers were Mr and Mrs Henry who lived at Wellington Pit House, overlooking the harbour.

“Sunday School was lovely, nice hymns and stories and we sang the hymns – paper sheets, operated by a pulley system, down and up, which the boys loved. As we got older we would learn set scriptures and recite them to receive a Philip Lord Wharton Bible. I still have mine.

“We all went with our mothers and grandmothers to the ladies’ sewing class where gifts to be sold at the church fair were made. And we looked forward to the annual Sunday School outing in July, which nearly always went to Braystones, but occasionally to Seascale. Our cake and sandwiches were prepared by Mrs Fanny Stafford and Miss Madge Little at their premises in the Market Place, near Donaldson’s Butchers. We also had a bag of sweets from Mr Kiggins, Roper Street, around the corner from the Golden Lion Hotel.

“Nearly every night something was happening at the Mission. Temperance evening was when we learned about ‘evil drink’ and took the pledge not to let it pass our lips. The best time was when we had the silent Charlie Chaplin and Keystone Cops films, which often broke down.’’

The Town Mission Association was first founded in June 1856, at a house in Duke Street, occupied by John Hamilton, a merchant ship owner. The foundation committee, drawn from the established church and all the non-conformist churches in Whitehaven, were: Jonathan Chisam, the Rev Wilfred Wilson, John Jackson, William Looney, John A Jackson, John Wilkinson, Lawrence Robertson, Henry Sands, William R Hilton, Peter Shepherd, James Crosthwaite, Irving Carlisle, Peter Cameron, William Kitchin, Thomas Barnes, John Walker, William F Nicholson, James Shilton (secretary). The following year the Bishop of Carlisle gave his support.

Its aim was “to promote the extension of evangelical religion, without reference to the denominational distinctions, among the poor and working population of the town”. The town was divided up into districts and missionary or scripture readers would visit households to engage in religious conversations, read the bible, and urge people to observe the Sabbath and attend public worship.

From the old minutes records we learn Mr Strong was the first Missioner and his district was from the top of Queen Street, down Duke Street to the sea. Services started in the Temperance Hall in Senhouse Street and the Albert Hall on Duke Street (next to The Ship) was rented out at 1s 6d a week as a place of worship.

By 1862 there were plans to build a mission and schoolroom at Mount Pleasant at a cost of £175 but this was not proceeded with and a room was taken at Mount Pleasant (the present Mission).

In 1864 a reading room and coffee room was opened in Bardy Lane as an alternative to the pub and a reading room was opened at Mount Pleasant for the use of soldiers stationed at the garrison.

Open-air meetings held on the Bulwark quay were started for seamen in 1872 and in 1876 a mission hall opened in Peter Street, during a year of great distress in the town, free teas were given to the poor.

In 1900 the Mission trustees tried to buy the High Street Presbyterian Church, and offered £200, but it had already been bought, for the same sum, by the Wesleyan Church and re-named the Kirk Mission. The opening of the Kirk Mission led to the closure of the Charles Street Mission in 1906.

In 1956, the trustees were: William W. B Dalzell, Joseph L Ferguson, James McGowan, James B Smith, William Collis, Arthur Jenkinson, William H Wandless, William C Dixon, Allan G Studholme, Alexander Crichton, Herbert E Franks, Thomas W Lucas, Joseph Reed, Richard Mullen, Henry Lawton, Joseph T Cooper, George Mason, Norman Kennedy, Leonard Donaldson and Jonathon H Douglas.

In 1962, after 11 years of faithful ministry, the Rev Hedley Jones resigned due to ill health and returned to his native Wales.

And when Miss Maggie Robinson died in 1994 in her 103rd year she had been a faithful member of the Town Mission for 93 years. A plaque dedicated to her memory was stolen in a burglary in 2002 along with other items.

Said Mrs Shackley: “There has been no Missioner here since 1982 but we have had much loyal support from speakers of other local churches. Without them the Mission would find it hard to function and we appreciate them greatly.’’

From 1933 to this day there have been over 140 baptisms, more than 40 marriages and around 200 funeral services conducted at the mission.

From The Whitehaven News, February 17, 1887:

TEMPERANCE MISSION AT WHITEHAVEN: On Monday night Mr J A Smith, the “converted actor,” who has been addressing meetings in Whitehaven for a week past, and who has before made himself a reputation in West Cumberland as an able and eloquent temperance orator, commenced a five nights’ mission at Mount Pleasant.

On Wednesday night the campaign was removed to the Refuge School, where it is likely to prove successful.

First published at 11:06, Thursday, 14 June 2012
Published by http://www.whitehavennews.co.uk