.jpg)
When I was growing up in the 1950's, an important facet of life for most children that I knew was attending local church services, and it was no different for me. The family background from a religious aspect is a very mixed one, and is a mixture of Jewish and Gentile blood, the Jewish blood being passed down through my paternal grandmother whose father emigrated firstly from Germany to Poland, and then to Alsace, my grandmother finally finding her way to the UK.
My father was raised in Llanbedrgoch in Anglesey, and attended the Wesleyan Chapel, whilst my mother, a cockney born in Kensil Rise, London, was raised as a Baptist. My parents started going out with each other when they were both sixteen, and married a few years later. A few years into their marriage they moved from the Bournemouth area where they then were, to live in the Bath area, and whilst there they attended a Baptist church together. Soon after they moved to Corsham in Wiltshire where my father had bought The Wine Lodge, a wine merchants that had been established since the late 1700's. They became members of St Bartholomew's C of E church, situated at the end of Church Street, adjacent to Corsham Court. Accordingly, it was to this church that we children were sent three times every Sunday; to the morning service (Matins); the evening service (Evensong); and Sunday School in the afternoon. It was also at St Bart's that I sang in the choir as a youngster. I have many happy memories of times spent at services in that church, although by and large I was never fully content from a spiritual point of view.
My father was raised in Llanbedrgoch in Anglesey, and attended the Wesleyan Chapel, whilst my mother, a cockney born in Kensil Rise, London, was raised as a Baptist. My parents started going out with each other when they were both sixteen, and married a few years later. A few years into their marriage they moved from the Bournemouth area where they then were, to live in the Bath area, and whilst there they attended a Baptist church together. Soon after they moved to Corsham in Wiltshire where my father had bought The Wine Lodge, a wine merchants that had been established since the late 1700's. They became members of St Bartholomew's C of E church, situated at the end of Church Street, adjacent to Corsham Court. Accordingly, it was to this church that we children were sent three times every Sunday; to the morning service (Matins); the evening service (Evensong); and Sunday School in the afternoon. It was also at St Bart's that I sang in the choir as a youngster. I have many happy memories of times spent at services in that church, although by and large I was never fully content from a spiritual point of view.
Together with my sister Norah I would go on a Tuesday evening to a chapel club for youngsters which was held at the Congregational Chapel, tucked out of sight behind the Pickwick Papers at the 'High Street' end of Pickwick Road, although this was very much frowned upon by my father. We went as long as we could keep it a secret from him, but ultimately were told to stop. Nevertheless, the times spent there were great, and certainly spiritually rewarding. We probably learned more about spiritual matters and about Jesus Christ in the short time that we went there than we did in years of attending St Bart's. Perhaps that was because we were going to somewhere of our own choice rather than somewhere we were sent --- who knows?
Those days are far off now, writing as I do some fifty to sixty years on, but the memories still please as I recall them. Just like everything else, it is the things like this that serve to shape us into the people that we become as adults. The things that we learned as children remain with us for ever, even if the ability to recall them might eventually pose a bit of a problem. Faces and images from the past come flooding to the fore as various people and places are remembered, and in the latter years of life provide much comfort and a sense of belonging.
No comments:
Post a Comment