St John's Church (1950's And Early 60's)

A Memory of West Byfleet.

St John's Church has its own peculiar smell which I used to appreciate during "the long kneel" (communion). Once a month, (or every week) an army of children would be frogmarched from The Langsmead School to attend Sunday Worship. The Langsmead Room now is the only reminder of the now defunct Boarding School which the pupils funded by collecting a mile of threepenny bits.

My friends and I went to Sunday School and thoroughly misbehaved ourselves but the vicar, of the time, was very patient with us. One day we were mucking around in "the long kneel" when "Goody Two Shoes Evelyn" reported us and dragged us of the see Mr. Costin. We were petrified that he would find out we had been making my childminder's son turn head over heels in front of the altar and playing the organ without permission. He was, however, extremely kind to us and put our names in the birthday book.

A few years later I belonged to Children's Union and we used to do embroidery and sell our handiwork in aid of the Children's Society. One Friday, 22nd November, 1963,I looked at the clock whilst sewing a bib, and it was precisely at that moment that President Kennedy was assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald in Dallas.