John Norris Remembers
The Church in 1959
My first impressions of St Mary's Church, was that it was dull, cold and poorly lit. I must admit that it would have been in mid October when we first attended as a family. Rev Francis Hicks was the vicar, and did his best to jolly us along, and keep up attendances. In those days it was expected that the "offices" were said every morning and evening, and that there would have been two services every Sunday.
It amazes me that all the church pews were accommodated in the building as St Cyriacs was almost roofless and contained nothing of value. There were certainly two extra rows in front of the present set up, and perhaps another row at the back. The officiant sat inside the rood screen, even as late as the Rev Mark Howarth's incumbency. This made so much more room at the front.
The choir stalls had wooden chairs with rush seats. Most of these were riddled with woodworm, and burned shortly after my arrival, and replaced by two black pews on each side. The Altar Table was placed against the Rood Screen, so that the celebrant had to face east. This made that area more spacious, and in my opinion the best option. We all knew what was going on at the Altar, and the present way of watching it all does take away some of the mystery of the ritual.
Of course the curtains there today were not necessary, and the pokerwork panels, although rather dull, did complement the rest of the building. The candlesticks had been nickel plated as this had been considered to require less cleaning. But no they looked awful after several years, and I had them re-brassed, and even today, fifty years later they still look splendid, as does the Altar Cross. The lighting in the east of the church was by three twelve inch glass bowls, and a 150 watt lamp in the middle of each. These gave reasonable light but required the Electricity Board Engineers to replace he bulbs, which did not last all that long. How the chancel was lit before the electric came I do not know, and is one of the many things not recorded, but which are interesting.
Under the window opposite the organ was a sword, and nearby the "Sam Brown" from which it hung. Many did not like these items from a recent war, and one day they disappeared. The hooks on which they hung are still there. The rood screen was refurbished in the nineteen sixties, as it was very dirty and lacking in polish. It took four weeks to complete the work, but made a huge improvement. One reason for the renovation was that the dust from the nave floor sanding went everywhere, even with many dustsheets. On the top of this screen was the place where the electric organ speakers were placed behind a black cloth screen. Colin Wastell had built and given this high technological organ for his fun, and our benefit. The sound and quality was superb, totally different to play and listen to from the simple second- hand pipe organ that was there. As with many things, it lost the interest of many, and the black cloth did not endear it to the ladies, so it went. The pews received our attention next. The black paint was removed by soaking with caustic soda, and elbow grease to remove it. One at a time they went to Anglesey house, where the treatment was performed, and any repairs made. The pulpit had to be cleaned in the church, as that too was black. Several years later we had to put a wider base on it, as it fell over with a schoolmaster inside!
Heating such a large space as the church is not easy. The old system had a coke furnace in the cellar under the vestry with hot air pipes under the floor of the nave. This hypocaust was quite cleaver in that the draft moving the air was regulated by shutters in the outside walls, one on the south side, and one near the boiler- room. The chute for the coke is still there, but everything else has been removed. There was a similar system in St Cyriac's, and I retrieved four of the tunnel bricks when a new floor was put in that church recently.
To make this work again I used an old hot air blower from the farm to push warm air up through the gratings. Very successful, but very underpowered. So three years later a larger new one was put into place. This needed a huge hole to be dug in the path by the vestry door, as it was too big to go down the steps to the cellar; it is going well today. (2011). The new supply of heat replaced the three paraffin heaters, which stood in the aisle. These had glass bottles for the fuel with a valve on the top. The bottle was turned upside-down on the pipe to the burner, over which was a wire dome which glowed red hot when working. This provided radiant heat for those near it, and hot air for the bats in the roof. These bottles used to gurgle when air was sucked in to replace the paraffin.
These heating attempts highlighted another problem; that of cold air coming down from the tower. John Byrom, the vicar, found a very heavy curtain, which we fixed over the tower arch to keep out this cold air. It was awful, but circumstances occurred so that a new glass screen was placed there, and that cured the problem, and served other purposes too. But the heating problem still has one more stage. We need three slow moving silent fans near the roof to blow the hot air back down to surround the congregation. These would complete our comfort zone, and we do have funds to pay for it. Keeping a fat investment account may be prudent, but I think our comfort is equally important.
The lighting in the nave was by these huge glass bowls so high as to be ineffective. So in 1964 John Macdonald and myself put in the present six lamps. We had quite a problem to drill a three-foot hole through the clunch and arrive at the proper place for the fitting. The angles were critical, and an ingenious device was made by John to get all the angles right. By today's standards they do look a little dated, but they have given good service for many years.
Many of these alterations were done by local folk, without the help of experts, and were very cost effective. One final thing. The lighting in the summer was still not good as the stained glass windows look interesting, but do keep out the light. It was the cloudiness of the clerestory windows that was the trouble. The acid rain from the many coal fires had etched the soft glass so as to keep out the light. A good harvest provided the wherewithal to replace these with hard Russian horticultural glass. And they are as bright today as when they were first put in. I kept a panel in my workshop to remind those interested how easily glass can deteriorate
I think I have covered most things done in my time in the village to the church, and I trust that interest will continue, and that the communal spirit will preserve the building and what goes on inside it- it is much more than weddings and funerals.