Description
Guides and Brownies take part in a procession from the Methodist Church on Fletcher Street. The church visible to the left has been demolished and the Sunday School building (with pitched roof in the centre back) is now the House of Rajas department store (2012).
I used to live in the row of houses on the right, just opposite and a bit further down from where the car is parked. I think it it was “next door but one” to Fletcher St. Barracks.
My family were regular attenders at Fletcher Street Methodist church from the 18880’s to its closure in 1968. The house attached to the pitched roof property was the home of the church caretaker, with the main building referred to housing the Sunday School (a 3-storey property, including a snooker room with full-sized table on the 3rd floor). The chapel building – the flat roofed building was demolished to make way for the new road which came round from Pilkington Street, which was parallel to Fletcher Street. The procession was probably part of the annual “sermons Sunday” which was always held on the first Sunday in April, and commemorated the opening of the chapel as a place of worship.
My parents and my paternal grand parents went here. My parents were married there. I have memories of the Church Bazaar held there in the early 1950’s and of singing on the stage. I also remember the snooker table which looked massive to a 4 year old.