Family Memories Birmingham Handsworth

St. Andrew's Church

I remember: -

• Rogation-tide and the Blessing of the crops when the clergy, servers, choir and congregation would process to the corner of Friary Road and facing the allotments, the farm and the fields would ask God's blessing on the crops.
• When the black Bishop (of Dornakel) preached, the congregation filled the church and extra chairs had to be provided.
• The pageant at Handsworth Baths in the early twenties when all local churches took part. St. Andrew's did the Nativity with younger members of the Sunday School being cherubs and the older ones being our Lady, Joseph, shepherds, angels and wise men.
• A play about PERPETUA. Mabel Thursfield played this part and my aunt Mary played the part of Caesar. The play was performed at various church halls in the district. On one occasion the cast missed the last tram home and had to walk home from Oldbury. They arrived home very much in the early hours.
• Sunday school parties at Hamstead Hall grounds, where on one occasion Auntie Mary was knocked unconscious when hit on the head with a cricket ball. Sutton Park was another venue going by train from Handsworth Wood Station (by the Park).
• Garden Parties at the Hawthorns, a large house and extensive grounds in Handsworth Wood where my brother fell in the pool when boating with fellow scouts.
• The Kings Messengers and how we used to meet in the vestry each week to make handicrafts to be sold for missionary work.
• The Harvest Teas. Long tables in the hall laden with food and giant steaming teapots.
• The Rev K Carey. When he was curate and visited my mother she was embroidering a table cloth with a sweet pea design. He said he would like to have a go which he did. I still have the cloth - one sweet pea with a "C" in the petal - the one he did.
• The United Service of Worship 15th July 1934 in Handsworth Park when each local church went in procession to Handsworth Park for a United Service.
• A case of absent mindedness by the Rev R S Harker our Vicar of the time when in pouring rain he had the umbrella up but unopened.
• Flag Day for Hospital Sunday when volunteers pushed the envelope through each house door in the parish and collected them for St. Luke's day and for the hospitals.
• A War Time Tragedy when Miss Powell Tuck our guider and Miss Dorothy James when a bomb fell on the house in Grove Hill Road.
• The Third Order. Quiet half days and weekend retreats at Moat House Convent Saltley.
• The Rev John Bowles (no relation) became Vicar at Glympton, Oxon after being our Vicar. The day I was confirmed he sent me a letter by express delivery with his blessing. A letter by the way posted at Glympton about 9.00am and delivered to me at 2.00pm the same day!
• The Bazaar. I hooped a little crock cat when having a go on the Scouts hoopla. I declined to accept him, but imagine my surprise when I reached home later to find the little snooty cat looking down his nose at me from the mantle piece. Nobody had wanted him!!! But I still have him and he has become a great treasure for me.
• A girl Guide Outing. A Saturday afternoon to the farm in Warwickshire at Grimscote owned by a relative of Sir Ernest Canning, one of our parishioners. A lovely tea and games in the fields. We returned to "the Grey House", the Handsworth Wood home of Sir Ernest where we had a picnic supper in his garden.
• The Girl Guides Competition at the Town Hall when our Company rendered the songs "As I went out one May morning" and "No joy like that of wandering". We came 5th.
• The Girl Guides Play at St, Andrew's Hall about the "Knights of the Round Table."
• The Girl Guides Camp at Rowden Mill near Bromyard when we missed our train home and catching the later train, and walking home after midnight from Handsworth and Smethwick Station.
• Ascension Day. We always went to the 6.30 am Communion when we hoisted the flag on the Church flagpole. One year there was an eclipse of the sun so after the service we all went by Hilltop Farm to get a good view.
• The Guides with each patrol having a section of garden around the church would attend to it and keep it free from weeds.
• Guides and scouts had Church Parades once a month. On occasions there was divisional parades when all the local guides and Scouts joined together.
• One autumn, there was a weekend camp in a big wooden hut in Sutton Park. It was cold with soaking grass after a heavy dew.
• Auntie Mary was a Sunday School Teacher and always had a class of boys. She was very keen and had been a Sister in the Church Army. She would take her class of St. Andrew's boys on outings, Barr Beacon, Sutton Park, Warley Woods and other local spots and on occasions have been known to turn up at my Grandma's at Smethwick for tea. Those boys thought the world of her in spite of her firmness and making them behave.
• My Confirmation was at Holy Trinity, Birchfields by Bishop Barnes in 1926.
• On the Sunday after Easter, Sunday School was taken in church when we all took fresh eggs which the clergy collected for the hospitals.
• One Sunday evening the Messiah was rendered, I was about 14 years old and thrilled to hear the Halleluiah chorus sung with all the congregation standing. I have never forgotten the occasion.
• Later in war-time I remember whilst at Reading having tea with our former Vicar Bowles and Mrs Bowles and Elizabeth when they lived at Caversham.
• For a time my husband was assistant Scout Master at St. Andrew's. It was after evensong one Sunday that Geoffrey Templeman, a friend of his introduced us. G Templeman was a scholar at Handsworth Grammar School and became Registrar of Birmingham University and later rector of the Essex University.