Rainbow Of Prayer

Jim Ainscough, now aged 90 tells his memories of the founding of St. Barnabas’ Church and of the local community then.

One of the founders of Bredbury Hall sold the Hall on agreement of it being made a church for the people of Lower Bredbury. Chester Diocese bought the Hall, and the parish of St. Mark’s had a meeting and formed the church. St. Mark’s wanted it to be called a mission church, as they were the mother church and I said “St. Mark’s is north of us and St. Paul’s, Portwood is south and so St. Barnabas’ should be in between.” (The Bible tells us that these three travelled together to spread the Gospel - Ed)

A builder wanted to buy the Daisy Field to build houses, but this was refused, so the church bought the field. In 1953 Chester Diocese wanted to build a proper church (the present building) which was completed in 1954. Then Bredbury Hall was sold for £2,300 (Sold again in the 1990’s for over £1,000,000!)

Mr. McNeight, Mr. Parks and I, formed the Boys’ Brigade in 1943 and held a jumble sale to get money to form the band. I made the first mace for the Band, and my wife Vera, ran a whist drive and hot-pot supper, to be able to buy the flag, which she donated to the Company. Vera went to St. Alban’s, Offerton, to investigate a Rose Queen organisation, which she then started at St. Barnabas’.

The Guides and Mothers’ Union were also formed in the church. There was a concert party formed, which produced some good shows, raising money for the church. The members of the concert party were: Mesdames: Hartle; Broadhurst; Etchells; Stewart; Bridges; Stafford; Priestley; Dimelow; Hughes and Ainscough.

At the end of the Rose Queen’s term of office, we entertained Rose Queens from around the district, who then took part in a parade around the estate.

I organised weekend camps for the Boys’ Brigade on a field belonging to “Toc H” in Adlington, and the boys had some good weekends there.

Harry Ferns (now aged 72) tells us his memories

I was a member of St. Mark’s Church Choir when the consecration by the Bishop of Chester of the new St. Barnabas’ Church took place.

Its status was that of daughter church to the parish church of St. Mark. It was in Bredbury Hall, an ageing, vacant mansion house that bore no resemblance to the present Bredbury Hall Country Club.

The vicar of St. Mark’s was the Rev. Reeman, who, as Canon Reeman, subsequently became incumbent of Wilmslow Parish Church.

Many events of the day are vague after all these years and I was only 11 years of age.
Politically, the days were extremely grey. We were in the fourth long year of the second world war, with its many privations an the boredom of food rationing, together with shortages of many commodities taken so much for granted nowadays. However, I do recall that the day of our church’s foundation was dry, bright and sunny. The majority of those present would have been members of St. Mark’s Church, many of whom were from Lower Bredbury and who would form the nucleus of St. Barnabas’ congregation.

One of the highlights of the day was the enlistment of volunteers for the 1st Bredbury Boys’ Brigade by Mr. Mcneight, the Woodley village barber. The company was based at St. Barnabas’ and flourished until near the end of the century. many of those who enlisted that day were St. Mark’s choirboys, as many of us were the right age group. A Life Boy group for younger boys was also formed.

I had very little involvement with church activities at the new church other than the B.B., as my allegiances lay with St. Mark’s, where I sang with the choir at morning service (after having completed a paper round). I also attended Sunday School in the afternoon and evening service at 6.30p.m.

St. Barnabas’ was, in a way, cut off from the rest of Bredbury except for Osborne Street and Stockport Road West. Between Broadway and Osborne Street was farmland, farmed by Mr. Twigg, tenant farmer of Yew Tree Farm, which stood on the present site of Arden School.

A popular route through from Higher Bredbury was by Dark Lane through Vernon Woods. This was the route by which we B.B. lads made our way to St. Barnabas’, and on Tuesday evenings the sound of bugle calls could be heard ringing through the trees on our way to practise and later on, on our return home.

I can recall only a few names from those early days, connected with the B.B. and those are Mr. McNeight, Sammy Parks, George Baguley (all officers) to name but a few.

A few thoughts then of the early days of St. Barnabas’ Church - taken from the current edition of St. Barnabas’ Parish newsletter “Herald”