Easter Memories

   St Andrew's Church was an important part of our lives and my twin sister and I were both baptised (1942), confirmed (1958) and married there. We too - like Gloria Friend - would walk around the lovely old church on Mothering Sunday to 'hug' mother church, as well as our own mothers. I especially loved Easter services, singing those lovely Easter hymns like 'There is a Green Hill Far Away', smelling the scent of primroses and feeling the promise of warmer weather ahead, sensing, as much as a little child can, the spiritual significance of Holy Week.  

From a memory by Elizabeth Housego. Click here to read the full memory.

   Easter Sunday 2009 was a gloriously fine and sunny day - just right for a family outing so my son David drove us all in my car to Arlington Court which is an enormous National Trust property not far from Barnstaple. Granddaughter Anna sat on the back seat next to Grandma and sang nursery rhymes for nearly all the journey of an hour from our home in Tiverton. When we arrived we found they were organising an Easter Egg Trail so that was fun following the clues. We also went inside the grand house - Anna who is only just three years old loved the big wide staircase and the display cabinets of sea shells. We walked around the lake and took some photos to remind ourselves later of our outing.  

From a memory by John Howard Norfolk. Click here to read the full memory.

   All the services in the big chapel was conducted by the Reverent Mr James, whom we all adored for at Christmas time, we all had to practise in the big chapel in front on the stage singing, Mr James a well built parson who gave is all, with perspiration dripping of his face and his shirt clammy with sweat, he was inspiring to watch him singing with such enthusiasm and encourage us all to raise our voices to the glory of god.

Christmas was a great event in Penygarn Tabernacle Chapel and so was the Easter Parade, where all the children of Penygarn had new dresses and easter bonnets ( we all would keep the dresses and bonnets, colour and design a secret and be upset if we wore the same). On Easter afternoon we congregate at the chapel, walk around Pengarn Streets and into Pontypool Park, where all the other chapel in the Monmouthshire area amalgamated in the grandstand. The grandstand echo with the rejoicing, and people of Pontypool would come to listen too, it was a grand occassion and I shall never forget the reverberation of that singing.  

From a memory by Jennifer Rogerson. Click here to read the full memory.

   Thirty of us second year pupils (age 14) six fourth years and four teachers travelled from our school in Hertfordshire by coach to London Euston to go by train to Penrith. Quite an adventure, I was bitten by a dog on the train, never told my mum. At Penrith we changed trains and went on to Braithwaite, on arrival it was getting dark as we pushed our luggage on the station cart up through the village to the camp. It was dark when we arrived and after such a tiring journey we snuggled into our sleeping bags and settled on the floor of the larger hut and went straight to sleep. In the morning we looked out of the windows--snow, lots of it, at least two feet deep. We had to clear our way to the toilet block before breakfast, only cold water in there--I am sure I did not have a proper wash. After breakfast we explored the area and found an old wooden sledge which was put to good use on the how opposite the camp buildings. In the afternoon we had our first trip, High Stile. In the following days we had lots of trips--Great Gable, Skiddaw, Helvellyn, Scafell Pike, Buttermere. We even managed to get thrashed at football by the village team on the pitch by the railway. We found the village sweet shop--the front room of one of one the houses in the village next to Coledale Beck. The two weeks that we were in Braithwaite flashed by.