Nostalgia with Margaret Watson: Back in the day most churches had flourishing youth groups

Margaret Watson writes: They were all members of Dewsbury Parish Church and Thornhill Parish Church youth groups who often got together for Saturday night dances and Sunday walks.

The most interesting thing about looking through old Reporter files is that you always come across something new, something you knew nothing about.

The ones which fascinate me most are articles about old schools and the old education system, probably because I went to a Catholic school and missed out on many things which other schools took for granted.

For instance, we didn’t have playing fields or sports facilities, libraries, domestic science rooms, woodwork facilities or musical equipment.

We didn’t have tennis rackets, hockey sticks or cricket bats, and when the Catholic lads set off to play other schools at football, they didn’t have football shorts or boots to change into.

When asked by the opposing side where their sports’ kit was, they just put their hands in their pockets, took out a little coloured ribbon and placed it over their head and across their chest.

This was the only piece of sporting gear they had, and although it was embarrassing to say the least, it never affected how they played.

We could have gone to better equipped schools if we’d wanted to, but our parents remained loyal to their faith, and rightly or wrongly, believed there was more to education than playing fields and music rooms.

Today Catholic schools enjoy the same facilities as all the rest, and surprisingly, it is the Catholic schools which parents of other faiths now want their children to attend.

But there was a time, in the dim and distant past, when parents had little choice as to which school they sent their children because most were either charity schools or run by the Church of England.

The church was more than a centre of religion; it was a place of learning, a centre of education where the poor could send their children.

Sunday schools operated in every church, and they taught more than religion, and many from the working classes benefitted from this.

The first Sunday school in Yorkshire, and one of the first in the country, was built here in Dewsbury in 1783, but was sadly demolished in 1978 to make way for extensions to a new Yorkshire Building Society.

This particular Sunday school was built at a time when the evangelical movement was taking root in Dewsbury and charity schools were opening up to help the poor read and write.

A Church Institute was set up in the 1850s in Dewsbury in the church hall in South Street which provided classes for adults, day and night.

Run by church members, the institute had a library and reading rooms, and the teachers also put on concerts, lectures and soirees to raise funds.

A report in the early days showed there were 2,000 books in the library, including some of the ‘choicest works of ancient and modern thought’.

It was described as the leading library of the neighbourhood, but members had to pay subscriptions, and as well as being a place of learning, it also offered outdoor activities, including a bowling green which even third class members could attend.

The library also had a complaint book laid out in the reading room which allowed members to comment on the books they felt should be withdrawn if they were deemed unpleasant.

In the 1860s the Institute was running short of funds and decided to hold a soiree to which many important speakers were invited.

One of them was Antonio Brady, who had come up from London to rally the people of Dewsbury and to praise the Church of England, which at that time had 12,000 parishes throughout the country.

Mr Brady poured scorn on the so called Free Churches, or “dissenters” as he described them, for breaking away from the established church and setting up their own schools and churches.

He admitted that the Church of England had been asleep and had not kept pace with the unprecedented growth of the nation.

However, the church still remained the great educator of the nation, but he warned of the consequences if she ever lost that privilege.

Mr Brady was speaking at a time when the Church of England still operated a ‘pew system’ whereby those occupying a pew had to pay for it.

This system meant that many of the poorer classes were excluded from attending church, something the Free Churches would never have allowed.

Obviously they were “free” in more senses than one.

Mr Brady criticised the “pew system” saying it deprived the poor of their rightful inheritance and he hoped the day would come when every person would have the right to a seat in their parish church.

The church was for all and not just for the privileged few, a sentiment which the audience loudly applauded.

Another speaker was the Mayor of Dewsbury, Mr E Day, who hailed the establishment of the Church Institute whose object was to educate the working classes.

“The Institute will raise them up out of the slough of ignorance and place them in a position where they can attain a respectable position in society,” he said.

The Reverend J D Massingham, of Warrington, said from 1839 to 1858, the Church of England had built 2,422 more schools than all other sects put together.

The picture above was kindly loaned to me over 15 years ago by David Scott, who used to be a member of Thornhill and sang in the choir.

Some of the people pictured he remembered at the time, were: Peter Scargill, Catherine Morrell, Ruth Charlesworth, Trevor and Brian Holroyd, Allen Binns, Audrey Lister and David Field.