ST AIDEN'S CHURCH

We could get into the church by crawling under the main door, that's if you were thin enough. The church steps were well worn down, to think how many years it took to wear away is mind boggling. We used to play amongst the furniture that came out of the bombed houses in Liquorepond Street. I went into the false roof once and found an old newspaper, it had turned yellow, dated in the eighteenth century, I threw it down thinking of the germs what could be on it. I now wished I had kept it. When we went to play in the Nelson Field, we used to go down Chapel Passage, and in the Church Wall where metal gratings to let air into the vaults, but it was impossible to see inside. Years later they started to take it down, for some reason, I suppose it was to make way for flats. Being nosey I went inside when the workmen had gone home. Part of the roof had crashed, and the church floor had given way. I could see quite clearly lines of coffins all dusty, some with lids smashed in; one was a long coffin, whoever it was, he or she, must have been tall, on the nameplate, was the name Ingram.