RYHOPE I.M. CHURCH

My Early Years.

Ryhope was a good place to be growing up in the late forties and early fifties.   The war had ended successfully, thanks to a concerted effort throughout the nation - including the Home Guards, of which Ryhope had a section!   There were five Sunday Schools:   the Primitive Methodists, who met in Ryhope Street  on the site of the Methodist Church; the United Methodists, who met on a site behind Larkhill, Hollycarside; the Pentecostals, who met in the Gospel Hall, the Village Green; the Salvation Army, who were located in Burdon Road and the Independent Methodists, who met in Ryhope Street- opposite Ernest Gray Hairdresser and ‘the rhubarb field’.   Five Sunday Schools, plus St. Patrick's R.C. Church and St. Paul's C. of E. Church - wow!!   - yet there were probably five times more public houses in Ryhope - stretching from the Colliery Inn, Ryhope Street South, to the Albion Inn, The Village / The Toll Bar.

 

 

I was a member of the I.M.s Sunday School and, although my parents weren't connected to the Church, I was encouraged to go along with neighbour's children, one of whom was Norman Barnes, who lived next door to us in Tunstall Street, which was behind Ryhope Street, down Brick Row.   I hadn't been going too long before my friends told me that they were leaving and going to the P.M.s "because they were starting a football team." Well, I had a word with my mother. It was the start of the football season. She told me to wait until the end of the year - and, if I wanted to change Sunday Schools, that was the time to do so. By the end of the year, I had made friends with Willie Wright, Anty High, George MacLaughlan, Harry Shaw, Lees Cansfield and others and so I was very happy to stay where I was.   In any case, the others who had gone to the P.M.s had left for some particular reason. Among the older boys were Eddie Holgate, whose mother was a prominent member of the Sisterhood and, indeed, President, Jack Barkel, who came with his younger brother, Sid, and Jim Smith. Other lads who joined us were Alan Ridley, Arthur Stokoe, Derek Sleep, Robert Matters, John Meikle with brothers Thomas and Alan, Jimmy Swansbury, Harry Pollard and Stan Jobling.

 

 

In those days the Sunday Schools used to meet up on Good Friday morning for a March of Witness and a joint Service, a practice which still continues today, but without the March.