Church prepares to mark centenary

Past and present members meet next month for a reunion weekend marking the centenary of a Methodist church building.

About 200 invitations have been sent for a buffet supper at Balderton Methodist Church, Main Street, on March 1.

It will be a chance for anyone connected with the church to mark the anniversary.

A Mothering Sunday service the next day will be led by Mrs Susan Bielby, a lay preacher and the wife of a former minister at Balderton, the Rev Richard Bielby.

Mr Bielby worked at the church in the 1980s. The couple now live in Stockton-on-Tees.

The church treasurer, Mrs Gillian Stark (67) of Shakespeare Street, Balderton, will be among the congregation.

She married Mr Peter Stark (69) at the church in 1962 and their daughters, Mrs Heather Roberts (41) of Haddon Drive, Balderton, and Mrs Karen Green (39) of Glebe Park, Balderton, were also married there.

Balderton Methodist Church has a congregation of about 50.

The longest-servicing member is Mrs Eunice Eddowes (84) of Orchard Way. She started attending services 76 years ago, aged eight.

“My friends came here to the Sunday School,” she said.

“It seemed there was a bit more life going on here.”

Mrs Eddowes is the senior steward. Her responsibilities include opening the church, organising weekly coffee mornings, arranging the flowers, writing the church newsletter, and looking after the minister, the Rev Richard Hooton.

Mrs Eddowes has an original poster advertising the first service on May 7, 1908, conducted by the Rev J. Wakerley of London.

Before the service, the door to the new church was unlocked by Mrs T. Quibell.

A collection was taken to help towards the cost of the building and tea was served in the school room after the service.

The church was built at a cost of £3,000 after the previous building, which is now Balderton Library, was sold.

Mrs Eddowes said she had many happy memories of the church and one particular incident was when the 150-year-old barn behind the church hall was pulled down in the 1960s.

She recalls the contractor deciding to tie a rope around two of the barn’s roof trusses and fixing it to his tractor. When he pulled away half the hall went with the barn.

As well as regular services the church has a Women’s Fellowship, Boys’ Brigade, a wives and friends’ group, and a popular Sunday School, which has about 12 members, aged two to 14.

The church continues to play an important part in the community, and the hall is used by a badminton group, a mother and toddler group, and for pilates classes.

Mr Hooton (65) said: “It’s a busy, friendly church.

“These things are often a way of introducing people to the church. Sometimes people find it daunting stepping over the threshold of a church.”

Mr Hooton, the minister since 1996, was due to retire last year but decided to stay on so he could take part in the centenary events.

The church recently spent £50,000 improving wheelchair access and creating a new foyer.

Mr Hooton said the next project would be to refurbish the kitchen.

Other centenary events include an anniversary service on May 4, to be conducted by the chairman of the Nottingham and Derby Methodist district, the Rev Wesley Blakey.

There will be a concert by the Cantamus Choir of Mansfield on June 28, and a flower festival in July.

The celebrations end with an Edwardian-themed harvest festival in October.