Sunday smiles

Among them was the photograph above from Tony Elvidge, showing members of the Sunday School in the late 1950s or early 1960s.

We know the names of only three – Ted Hawkes, extreme right, Ted Elvidge, next to him, and Ken Mills, the man just below the left-hand edge of the stone ‘Methodist Church Hall’ engraving.

The church in Oxford Road dates from 1936, but the roots of Methodism in the village go back more than 200 years.

According to Graham Kirby, who is compiling a history of the church, the first Methodists worshipped at Henry Leake’s home, Hill House, 95 High Street, in the early 19th century. Services were then switched to the home of baker Joseph Hall, although his address is unknown.

Later, worship took place at a former malthouse owned by Thomas Carter at the Mill Street/Mill End junction, now a hairdressers.

The Methodists opened their own chapel in 1861, in front of houses at 6-12 School Road. Numbers attending Sunday services were so large that the building had to be extended.

The chapel attracted many visiting preachers, including John Brownjohn, a popular figure with a long white beard and well-worn round black hat, who walked from Oxford to Kidlington regularly.

In the early 1930s, the church began looking for a site for a new church to cope with Kidlington’s rapidly rising population.

The foundation stone was laid in Oxford Road in April 1936 and the opening ceremony, attended by Methodists from a wide area, took place on September 24 that year.

A service of dedication and thanksgiving was held, after Mrs A Stanley Bishop, wife of the chairman of the Methodist district, had formally unlocked the door.

The building cost £2,500, most of which had already been raised, thanks to £600 from an anonymous donor and £700 from the sale of a former chapel in St Michael’s Street, Oxford.

The old chapel in School Road was sold and used for storage until it was demolished in 1962.

Can anyone supply more names to the picture above?

* Churches at war – Page 21