Old Rectory Of The White Church

That was my house! My dad was the Rector and we lived in the old house for a couple of years while they built the new Vicarage. It was an amazing place to grow up as kids, although my parents don't seem to have the same memories of living in a semi-derelict rat-infested old heap! There was old tennis lawn (long past its best) and s sunken croquet lawn too. Sadly, the old house was burned down by arsonists, having been abandoned by the developers who had originally planned to convert it into a nursing home. Eventually it was bulldozed and built over by Apostle Close and St Thomas' close.
I was at Nightingale under Mt Hillaby too; he used to tell me off for taking a shortcut from the Rectory onto the playground, and insisted I walked around Grenville and Cedar just like everyone else!

I am trying to locate some graves at St Peter's Warmsworth - but none of the ones that used to be there in the 1970s were able to be found at my last visit. When the new Rectory and houses were built did this remove part of the graveyard? And if so did any graves and gravestones get relocated?

In 1960 my father was a chief tech at RAF Finningley when he took an RAF hiring of a flat in St Peters Rectory. There was not a married quarter vacant for us so the Reverend Hatch rented one out to us while we waited. I attended the old mixed but segregated comprehensive or ‘high’ in Oswin Avenue. The flat was on the white church side of the building only the old courtyard and stable building between. The flat had a massive living room with our three piece suit and other furniture right down one end of it. Living there I remember a bitter winter wig much snow. The two warm summers were spent picking raspberries from the canes there and helping the Reverend Hatch clearing the fruit from his pear trees at the entrance to the courtyard. The main drive was the shape of a triangle and the very old and sooty trees made the old ivy covered building very spooky and the Reverend Hatch seemed very severe to me also. He wanted to confirm me at 13 and I declined. I tried to cultivate a patch in the garden which was massively overgrown with everything including gooseberries and those wonderful raspberries. I enlisted the help of a tramp who ran off with the spade needless to say I never went self employed.

Thank you for sharing your memories of this place. Do you have any old photos of the rectory? Or have you seen it in any local publications?

What an amazing place to live! Do you have any old photos?

hi as a child i lived in aldam road balby in the 70`s me and my twin sister went to nightingale school mr Dixson was are teacher , I was oliver in a play we did i loved that school good old days then.my name is michael walker and my twin is called julie . love to see some old pics if anyone has any