Old Thurlstone Views

Wesleyan Chapel, 1894
The Methodist congregation in their Sunday best, just six years after the chapel was built. Methodism always had a strong following in our area. This chapel, on the main Manchester Road, was until recently in a state of great dilapidation but it has been very nicely tidied up and sand-blasted now. I notice that the gateposts have lost their pointy tops.

Built 1888 AD

The uniform of the chap top left is not known to me. The posters advertise 'Thurlstone Wesleyan Sunday School' and an adult Bible class with the date May 14th 1894. An amazingly sharp picture from the nineteenth century. There is a small error on the top arch in the old picture as I accidentaly left something on the scanner plate. One of my relatives is on the old picture but I've no idea which one. My great uncle Alfred Briggs used to be a lay preacher.

Thurlstone Sunday School, 1907
The date stone says that it was built in 1786 but until the 1930s this was only a Sunday School. It is now known as 'Thurlstone First School'. It is likely that its hall was used for community activities. The proper school for infants and older was a large building with a small bell-tower at 'Town End', near the main road. The first picture here is of the 1907 Sunday School class in the schoolyard. The little ruffians don't look much different from modern bairns except for the clothes. They were probably told to look serious. See how little the building has changed over nearly a century. The middle-left view (not 'clickable') is how the yard looked in 2001 but it has changed considerably in 2011 after a lot of improvements have taken place and it looks as though the date stone was re-located. The view on the right is a 'stitched' composite of two pictures taken in March 2011.

Looking at 1907, I don't have a class list but think that John Briggs (about 7, 'Uncle Jack') and his sister Ruth Briggs (about 6) would be in the picture. Brenda Thewlis has added Ellen Marie Beever (about 6) to the list. It's quite poignant to see the empty yard, as most of the children will now have grown old and died. As a point of interest, I used to attend an exercise class in the school hall in 2001 and, on our last day there, left a good quality scan of the 1907 class in the hall. I re-discovered that same picture in a school 'Memory Lane' open day ten years later, in 2011. It had been properly framed. I was very pleased to hear from the Head teacher Mrs Charlotte Gibbens that it had pride of place on the wall above her desk.

Whitsuntide 1933
Churches had a much greater attendance in those days and everybody would turn out for the big Whitsuntide parade from Millhouse Green to Penistone. Bottom right is a close-up of the posters on the adjacent picture. There's bound to be some of my relatives here, but I can't recognise any. I suspect that the chap in the bowler hat by the posters could be my 'uncle Jack', John Briggs. He would have been 33 years old.

A Personal History
A house on Matthew Gap was the home of my father Frank, my uncle John, my great-uncle Alfred, my grandmother Emily and my grandfather John Thomas Briggs. Inscribed above the door to what was '7 Woodland View, Matthew Gap', is something like Old Jack's, which refers to my uncle John who lived there all his life (and after whom I was named). The house had no electric in those days, a valve radio ran from batteries and lighting was a gas mantle hanging from the beamed ceiling.

A black-enamelled cooking range provided hot water for general washing and the zinc bathtub. The stone sink in the kitchen had only a cold water tap and a bar of red carbolic soap. A pot hot water 'bottle' provided some heat at bedtime. The cold stone floor had only a rug or two for comfort and the only toilet was outside, across the yard and supplied with torn pieces of newspaper.

Uncle Alf (right) was a man of dignity and great character. An employee of Durran's blacking works, which continues to this day, and someone who always stood his ground. He was a Methodist lay-preacher and a man of good learning, as he used to borrow books from a local schoolmaster. Very old visitors to my website might remember this picture and Alf's wily ways. It was taken in the 'Blue Ball' pub, which later became Thurlstone's British Legion. A framed copy of this same picture was in there until it closed.

After being derelict for many years, the building was converted into flats in the 1980s by a New Zealander and renamed 'Skyliner'. That was also his CB-radio handle.

Please also see modern views of Thurlstone.