Teaching is not a bad thing, it’s an essential thing. A well-balanced community living in Jesus’ presence needs to receive truth from apostolic, prophetic, evangelistic, pastoral and teaching gifts.
A new family moved into the village and began to advise and work with Tony, Faith, Paul, Jenny and some of our friends from the next village, Claverham. During this time Judy and I began to feel that things were going a bit off-track. Judy actually wanted nothing to do with the new situation, I decided to go along to the meetings fairly often to keep in touch with our friends. I should add, right at the outset, that I don’t think there was any intention to derail the work that Father was doing amongst us, but rather to enrich it and bring additional knowledge and experience to the mix. But unintentionally this had the effect of changing track with a new focus on teaching that had not been there before. Teaching had never been a notable part of our meetings, we had always been guided mainly by prophecy, and by what we read in the Bible. We were exposed to teaching when we went to larger meetings (the pre-crusade rallies in Portishead for example and visits to Pip’n’Jay in Bristol or the meetings at Post Green), and from the popular books that were doing the rounds (books by Graham Pulkinhgham, Michael Harper, Colin Urquhart, David Watson and others) and we did a small amount of teaching when we were invited to visit local churches as ‘Fountain’. But in our own weekly and daily meetings there was little to no teaching. We were growing and learning together in our exciting faith journey. It was wonderful and extraordinary while it lasted.
But now Alan and Dorothy provided new songs (some of them truly excellent) and Alan taught regularly about how and when and where the meetings should take place as well as material about Jewish customs, feasts and celebrations. Alan and Dorothy came from a background of small gatherings in a different part of the UK (Blyth). So the Spirit-guided growth we had experienced gradually gave way to ideas and processes managed mainly by Alan. Something similar to this has happened over and over again throughout church history. Personally I learned a good deal by seeing it happen both from the outside (because I wasn’t directly involved in the events) and also from the inside (because I was at many of the meetings and had a ringside seat, so to speak). Sometimes I feel I should have shared my thoughts and feelings clearly, but Alan was experienced in meetings of this kind and I was not. I didn’t feel it was my place to interfere, nor was I part of what was happening. When I went along to a meeting I always felt I was accepted partly because I didn’t stir up trouble, but somehow seen as not quite making the grade. Everyone must have been aware that I had some doubts though I was careful not to express them too often or too forcefully. I was, however, grieving about the loss of the sense of direction we’d had together and the subtle shifts in emphasis.
A bad thing can sometimes spark good outcomes
What a strange heading, but it’s true! A few years later my wife Judy was diagnosed with bowel cancer and everything changed. Your friends are always your friends, through good times and bad, so at some point in late spring or early summer 1995 I think, I approached Tony and Faith with this really bad news and invited them to visit and pray with us. And because your friends are always your friends, they were not slow to respond. This coincided with a time when the meetings with Alan and Dorothy were proving rather difficult though I didn’t know that at the time.
Before long Tony and Faith, and Paul and Jenny were coming round for an evening visit at least once a week, and eventually two or even three times a week as Judy’s illness progressed. But what happened during those meetings was astounding and utterly unexpected. Jesus was palpably present every single time we met, and his Spirit was so active amongst us. We experienced prophecy, interpreted tongues, and deep coincidences between songs we were singing, what we were thinking and Bible readings that popped out in the moment. We knew we were right in Father’s presence every time we met. This was holy ground. None of us had experienced anything like it before. The cancer spread and I, for one, had no expectation of physical healing, but Judy and I were both blessed deeply by the renewed presence of our friends and by the experiences in the meetings. It’s fair to say we were all changed by these times together and I know that all of us who remain will never forget it. Judy died on 28th December 1995 and Paul is now no longer with us either. I’m sure all of us learned a lot through the shared experience of those times. Looking back from the perspective I have now, it seems that the change in the meetings following Alan and Dorothy’s arrival combined with the astounding times and experiences as we met again during Judy’s illness, starkly illuminated the difference between living and meeting in our own human wisdom and strength and the freedom we had in the pure presence of Jesus and his Spirit. There’s something further to say about this.
Teaching is not a bad thing, it’s an essential thing. A well-balanced community living in Jesus’ presence needs to receive truth from apostolic, prophetic, evangelistic, pastoral and teaching gifts. If any are missing or if there is an imbalance, any group, no matter how well-meaning, risks derailment in one form or another.
Winding down
After Judy’s death, the five of us continued to meet for a while, and sometimes we were joined by a couple from Clevedon, members of a new local church, and also by Donna (now my second wife) who was a work colleague from Long Ashton Research Station.
These meetings, too, were good but things were still changing. I remain in touch with Tony and Faith occasionally, though less so with Jenny. Donna and I were married a few years later and left the south-west for the east of England, but that’s another story and I’ll share my personal journey of faith there in the next part of this series. Paul and Jenny moved east as well to be closer to more of her family. Tony and Faith still live in the village of Yatton. Donna and I moved west again ten years ago and now live in Cirencester, Gloucestershire.
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We didn’t see ourselves as a house church, more as a group of local believers from a range of denominations all wanting to be part of the exciting revival going on in the UK at the time, open to the gifts of the Spirit, but not wanting to become yet another splinter group.
Yatton, the village in Somerset where it all happened
Things were changing. We’d been fairly comfortable at Horsecastle Chapel in Yatton, and we’d learned a great deal and felt loved and made very welcome by the people there. But there were one or two niggles already mentioned in part two of this series. We felt it was not right, and rather unfortunate, that women were not able to take leading roles in meetings, that it was required that women wear hats (a minor thing, but an irritant nonetheless). It began to seem that some of these rules were made by people, not by our Father in heaven, and certainly not by his Son, Jesus. But the greater niggle was that we were not able to move in spiritual ways that were being revealed to us more and more as time went by.
An Anglican home group
For me it came into sharper focus when I went to an Anglican study group. Judy might have come to the same ideas in a different way, but she died in 1995 so I can’t check! I’m not sure we discussed it at the time, but we were moving on closely parallel paths, that I can say with certainty. I wanted to meet some of the Anglicans because I had the feeling there was supposed to be a single church, not a plurality of them. I couldn’t see any way that they could all be brought together, but I wanted to at least get to know some people of other denominations. Going along to the study group seemed a good way to approach this. I soon came to understand that the Holy Spirit was nudging me to go along, and rather quickly I discovered what he had in mind!
Friends and allies
The Anglican study group was held in the home of one of the St Mary’s congregation and was led by the Vicar, Revd Richard Acworth. I don’t remember what was discussed, but I very clearly remember the topic of humility coming up. There was a man in the group who protested, quite strongly, that he was not humble and didn’t intend to become so. I had the impression that he equated ‘humble’ with ‘impoverished’ or ‘weak’ or ‘demeaning’ or some other utterly unattractive idea. I think I was also a bit disappointed by the Vicar’s response.
Also in the group was a woman about my age and as we were leaving I mentioned the humility issue. She agreed quite enthusiastically and we had a brief conversation on the way home; her name was Faith. Judy and I would soon become good friends of Faith and her husband Tony. We shared a lot of views in common concerning Jesus, the Bible, and Church – and this excited me because we were from such different church traditions.
Meeting often
We began meeting quite regularly with Tony and Faith. We were like-minded on so many church matters, and some other things too. We both had young families so most often one of us would walk down to Tony and Faith’s house in Court Avenue in the evening while next time one of them would walk up to our house in Rectory Drive. We would do some Bible study, perhaps sing some of the Christian songs that were so common in those days, and we would pray together. But by far the most important thing we did was to listen to one another and to what the Holy Spirit seemed to be saying to us, sometimes in a whisper, sometimes rather loudly! We invited other people we knew to come and join us, especially Paul and Jenny who lived close as well, so four became six; and there were many other local people with us. On a weekly basis we took turns to host these larger meetings. Sometimes there’d be 20 people in our sitting room, on our sofa and armchairs or sitting on the floor. These were great times of blessing when all of us would feel the presence of the Holy Spirit right with us in every word read or spoken and in every song we sang. We were warned of the dangers we were facing by some of the elders at Horsecastle Chapel, we knew their hearts were in the right place and that the warnings were well-meant; but we knew we were following Jesus so we ignored the advice and warnings and carried on.
Music
Fountain at St Barnabas
Tony is a skilled bass guitarist, Paul was good on a steel-strung 12-string he had, And I would plonk along on a nylon-strung Spanish style acoustic guitar Judy and I had bought at a music shop in Park Street, Bristol while we lived in our flat in Belmont Road. This was an expensive instrument – I think it cost us £27 in 1970 or 1971 (around £540 today) and it replaced the two cheap, second-hand guitars we bought while at university. It seemed better to share one good guitar than to persevere with two older ones that were difficult to tune. Rather later, we were joined quite often by David and Mary Bolster, another couple living nearby. David worked for Scripture Union, and was usually busy with youth work of one kind or another. Judy and I went on a youth retreat with them one year at Wroughton near Swindon to help as assistant leaders, and visited them at a camp at Great Wood in the Quantock Hills, Somerset. The photo shows Fountain in the Church Hall at St Barnabas in Claverham (from left you can see Paul, Faith, me, Ian on flute, Jenny, Judy and Tony on bass). Ian joined us a little later but was a very useful addition providing a higher pitch in the mix and helping strengthen the melody line.
Tongues
One evening after walking down to Tony and Faith’s, Tony mentioned that he’d received the gift of tongues. We’d read about this in Acts and in some of Paul’s letters to the Greek churches. and we’d read about it in modern times too in books by Colin Urquhart, David Watson, Graham and Betty Pulkingham and others. On hearing this news from Tony I felt mild surprise, delight, frustration and envy all at the same time. So, of course I asked about how it had happened and what it was like. Tony told me he’d been having a bath so was very relaxed and he just started talking scribble. He felt warm and encouraged. As I walked home after that evening at Tony and Faith’s. I gave it a try – I talked some scribble words myself. I learned a valuable lesson right at that point. Was this a gift from the Holy Spirit or was it just me talking scribble and being really foolish. I realised right away that there was no way to tell. And I understood something that I’ve never forgotten since that evening. It’s not about me doing something or not doing something. Specifically, it’s all about Jesus doing something in me, and the only skill needed for that is the simple ability to listen to him and do what he wants, not what I want. This tiny revelation changed my entire life. Everything became real in that moment. In this journey with Jesus it’s not for us to do anything more than rest in his presence. If I do that one thing, consistently, he will do anything else that is necessary. My effort is not required, and life is often far better if I keep well out of the way, especially at moments when he’s touching someone else. My surprise and delight are in order, but never frustration or envy.
As the weeks and months went by, our home meetings grew in numbers, but more importantly in depth and in our appreciation of receiving gifts. We were being invited to bring music and teaching to local churches around the county of Avon and the northern areas of Somerset. We called ourselves ‘Fountain’, played all the latest choruses and songs, as well as some of our own songs and acted out little sketches to help people understand the charismatic revival that was taking hold all around us. Tongues and interpretation became normal for us in meetings, as did prophecy, but the most important things for me were the spirit of caring for one another that grew in our hearts and minds and the determination we all had to follow Jesus in everything.
Jesus provides gifts, but will we open them?
One of those sketches sticks in my mind so I’ll share it with you, Tony played the part of Jesus, and Paul was a typical church member. Tony had a cardboard box wrapped in colourful paper, perhaps with a ribbon tied in a bow. He gave the box to Paul, saying I have a special gift for you. Paul took it and made a point of thanking Tony several times, saying, ‘Oh it’s really lovely, thank you so much, but I don’t think I really deserve it’. He put it down on the table, walked round it, looked at it from all angles and carried on saying how lovely it was. Tony (Jesus) asked, ‘Aren’t you going to open it?’ I chose it specially for you, it’s just what you need, you know.’ Oh no, I couldn’t possibly open it,’ said Paul, ‘That would spoil it, it’s so beautifully wrapped, it would crumple that lovely paper. Jesus responded, but if you don’t open it you won’t find out what it is and you won’t be able to use it. I want you to open it’. And this went on for a while. Then we explained that Jesus has gifts for all of us, but we do need to open them and start using them. And without the gifts being unwrapped and used as intended, Jesus will find it a problem to help us do the work he has in mind for us. His work, building his church, growing his people involves him pouring his grace and love into us so that we can share those things with those around us. He does not want us to be timid. We must gratefully receive everything he has for us. It’s for his glory, not ours and we shouldn’t stand in his way.
Good News Crusade
Another thing we did around the same time was print a monthly local newsletter called ‘Community Spirit’ with details of forthcoming meetings at churches around the area, and any special events in the pipeline too. One of these was a Good News Crusade with a series of pre-Crusade rallies beforehand at a church in Portishead. I recorded many of these meetings on a portable stereo cassette machine, and I produced copies from the originals so they could be passed around the community as widely as necessary.
Not a house church
Eventually we would be hosting home meetings of up to twenty people once a week at our house, Tony and Faith’s, or Paul and Jenny’s and one or two other homes in the nearby village of Claverham. There were other similar house meetings going on (for example the Bank House Fellowship in Clevedon). We didn’t see ourselves as a house church, more as a group of local believers from a range of denominations all wanting to be part of the exciting revival going on in the UK at the time, open to the gifts of the Spirit, but not wanting to become yet another splinter group. Much of the leadership effort at the time was spent on starting new streams of churches, New Frontiers for example or Vineyard, or on the other hand bringing spiritual gifts into the established denominations – Anglican, Catholic, Methodist, Baptist and so on. Both of these efforts became successful and widespread, but from my perspective today I can see very clearly that we made by far the better, and perhaps more obedient choice. We thought the way forward was more about bringing people together in freedom to follow Jesus in flexible ways, while providing information, help and encouragement both in the established churches and chapels in our area, and amongst Jesus followers with no connections to established churches. We were also keen to encourage new and deeper spiritual growth in all the local churches, though our links with some of the larger places were more tenuous than those with the smaller and self-governing groups. I still feel privileged to see things this way – as if I had a narrow escape from taking a wrong path. I think we all had a narrow escape, Jesus was protecting us and whispering to us, ‘Not that way, this way, just follow me!’ Many of the churches and chapels we encouraged still exist and remain active, some of their websites are listed below under the See also: heading.
Prophecy
It wasn’t just Tony, as time went by we all found ourselves receiving spiritual gifts in a variety of ways. For me, visions and prophecy became the main gifts and I well remember the first time I became aware of it.
I was sitting on the floor in Tony and Faith’s front room, it was just the three of us. (so before Paul and Jenny became involved). In my mind I saw us as children playing on a building site. There were muddy puddles and stacks of bricks all around. We took some of the bricks and stacked them up to make little ‘houses’, four bricks for walls and another balanced on top to make a roof. We were happy playing with the bricks together, but just then the builder arrived and spotted us. He walked over and smiled, though we thought he’d be cross with us. Somehow I knew the the builder was a representation of Jesus. And he said to us, don’t play with the bricks but bring them to me because I know how to use them to build real houses. If you bring them to me you’ll save me time and I’ll be able to build faster.
So that’s what we did, and the first real house started to rise! It wasn’t much of a stretch to see that the real house represented the church, and our job was not to build something ourselves but to bring people into Jesus’ presence and watch while he builds the church.
It was an important lesson and a growth point for me personally and perhaps for all of us as a group. And I’ve been used that way in meetings ever since. Sometimes it’s been well received, sometimes not.
The Fisherfolk/Community of Celebration
Around this time we became aware of the Fisherfolk, a music ministry that wrote and recorded many new Christian choruses focusing on spiritual growth, and particularly the receiving and use of spiritual gifts. This was right up our street! We bought the music books with words and, most helpfully with keyboard score and guitar chords as well, we bought the LP recordings and avidly absorbed it all, practicing Fisherfolk and other songs as well as creating some of our own.
But then a special opportunity came up. We learned that a weekend of music, praise and worship was planned at a site in Dorset – Lytchett Minster. There was a field for camping, the Fisherfolk would be playing and there’d be a lot of like-minded people to discuss things with. We booked space for three tents and went along. It turned out to be a time of growth and learning, just as we’d hoped – hugely beneficial, confirming much that we were already doing and encouraging us to continue.
Impressed as we were by the community style of living demonstrated by the Community of Celebration, we briefly toyed with the idea of selling our three homes and buying an old farmhouse with some land around it, Faith, Paul and I thought this would be a great idea, but Judy, Tony and Jenny disagreed and we didn’t follow through on the plan. It was only an idea in the back of our minds, we didn’t even start to look into the practicalities. but without unanimity, it couldn’t get off the ground.
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Judy and I were hooked, more and more so as we spent further time with the lovely people at Zetland Road. We discovered that the origins of Zetland were with the Brethren as that movement spread from the south-west peninsula of Cornwall and Devon.
Zetland Road Church – (Both images in this article are from Google maps)
We left part one of this series with our discovery that the weird-looking place near our flat in St Andrews in Bristol, was in fact Zetland Road Fellowship (now Zetland Evangelical Church) – and not weird at all. Judy and I had hunted high and low, all over the city, and not found what we were looking for. Somehow, we had known all along that we would know the right place when we found it. And so it turned out to be.
Zetland Road Fellowship
The first thing we noticed on walking into Zetland was that several people took the trouble to talk to us. There were smiles and we felt welcome amongst these people. This in itself was a novelty, different from everywhere else we had tried. When the meeting began things were pretty much as expected; there was a welcome, a mix of prayers and hymns, some notices, a Bible reading, thoughts and teaching on topics from the reading, and after the closing prayer an invitation to remain for tea or coffee, a biscuit, and a chat.
The conversation over a drink and biscuit was good too, welcoming, not pushy, but friendly and we had a chance to speak with several different people before we left.
After going along to Zetland for several Sundays, I decided to try an evening meeting on, I think, a Wednesday. I was blown away by what I found there! The text was from one of the books of Samuel and concerned King David, though I no longer remember the details. What I do remember is that it was a passage that I had read for myself in the past and that the way it was explained in the meeting was very striking. I remember being greatly impressed at the convincing thoughts expressed, the fact that there was more to know than I had seen for myself, that what was being said acted like a telescope, helping me see further and in more detail than before. I wanted to hear more – and more was being offered the following week.
Judy and I were hooked, more and more so as we spent further time with the lovely people at Zetland Road. They felt like a welcoming family. We discovered that the origins of Zetland were with the Brethren as that movement spread from the south-west peninsula of Cornwall and Devon. Both Zetland and (later) Horsecastle were Open Brethren assemblies. A lot of small, independent chapels were built in the Bristol area during Victorian times. There were a few things that we questioned privately – the insistence that women should wear hats for example, and the irritating fact that they were not permitted to speak in meetings. To some degree this spoiled the lovely Open Meetings they held once a month. And the belief they had that the spiritual gifts were no longer present in church life was also a problem for us, but they had so much clearly right that we were happy to ignore these niggles. We were not entirely happy, but more than happy enough to stay. Our spiritual and social lives benefitted enormously from being part of the Zetland fellowship. We particularly cherished the experience of each assembly governing itself. There was absolutely no higher level of authority apart from the Bible – no hierarchy whatsoever, no bishops, no pastor, no circuits, no rules, no limitations. From what Judy and I had read in the New Testament this seemed right to us.
We were only with the Zetland Road church for about two years because we wanted to move up the housing ladder from our unfurnished flat in St Andrews, Bristol, to a small mid-terrace 1960’s house in Yatton, twelve or so miles west of the city. Our first daughter, Debbie, was born shortly before the move and was dedicated at Zetland Road Chapel, a simple expression of gratitude not involving water or godparents. We’d already planned to share a caravan in Ilfracombe for a late summer holiday with Cliff and Ginnie, another young couple from the Zetland fellowship, and although we moved to Yatton before that holiday, we were still able to get away with them later. Cliff and Ginnie collected us from Yatton on their way to Ilfracombe (they had a car, we did not), but for the return journey they dropped us off at Barnstaple Railway Station and we caught the train back part way, but the Barnstaple train was delayed and we missed our connection to Yatton, the last one of the day. We had to ask a friend to rescue us from Bridgewater Station.
Horsecastle Chapel
Horsecastle Church
We were absolutely up against the financial buffers when we made our bid for our first house in Yatton. We were only able to offer £7000 and it was a time of rapid inflation which made saving very hard. The asking price was higher than we could afford: quite a lot higher (perhaps £7500 or so, I don’t recall the exact figure). So when we put in our offer of £7000 we expected it to be rejected. Much to our surprise it was accepted straight away without discussion or argument. This seemed strange, but it was exactly what we needed and so we were relieved and excited as well as a little puzzled. But you don’t look a gift-horse in the mouth, so we just said thank you and the paperwork went through.
Two of my friends from work, Ruth and Peter helped us move. We hired a self-drive van and filled it with our hand-me-down three piece suite; our double bed funded by my grandmother, Nor; all our clothes, books, LPs etc; our cheap second hand dining table and four chairs; cooker and more. We set off for Yatton and and then discovered at the first right hand bend that a rear tyre was rubbing under the wheel arch and making a terrible noise. We had to take all right handers as slowly as possible, and with great relief arrived outside our new home.
With Ruth and Peter’s help we soon had everything indoors or stashed in the garage, and Ruth and Peter left us to it. By now it was late on Saturday and the shops had closed. As the evening light began to fail we turned on the light in the lounge only to find there was no bulb! We looked round the entire house and found all the bulbs removed and of course the shops would remain closed all day on Sunday. Finally, I checked the garage and found a bulb in the light fitting there, took it up to the house and fitted it so we had light at last, at least in one room.
Much later, we learned that the previous owners of our new home were Mark and Jean, members of the local Evangelical Chapel (Horsecastle). They had prayed about selling their home and moving to a bigger house in the village, and felt quite certain that they were supposed to accept whatever price we offered them!
What wonderful ways our heavenly Father has, working unexpectedly and often leaving us in ignorance until the time is right for us to know. He really is amazing!
Of course, one of our first thoughts was finding another gathering of people like those we’d been so delighted to find at Zetland. When they knew we were going to live in Yatton, the Zetland folk had told us about Horsecastle Chapel near the railway station in Yatton, and Claverham Chapel in the nearby village of Claverham. They recommended we take a look at these two places. We found we liked both, but Horsecastle was closer and larger so that’s where we ended up (a second welcoming family).
Our time at Horsecastle was good, we were both baptised while we were there, in a small pool underneath the raised dais at the front of the main meeting room. This was an exciting time and an important step in our journeys. For both of us it felt like a time of triumph and of belonging. We learned a lot at Horsecastle, we grew in faith and in knowledge, and we became deeply involved in the church community at a time when our young family was thriving . When our second child (Beth) was born she was duly dedicated at Horsecastle. But not everything was good.
Horsecastle held quarterly meetings when the entire church would meet to discuss planning for the future. We would talk about what had gone well, any issues that needed attention, that sort of thing. There was no single person in charge, no minister, no lead elder or pastor or anything like that. There was a small group of elders, all older men, but their role was informal, limited to providing advice, and perhaps speaking from the front a little more often than others.
At one of these quarterly meetings we discussed the idea of finding and employing someone to lead the church on a full time basis. Judy and I thought this would be an unwise move, and I expressed this as clearly as I could. I suggested that we already had a full-time leader whose name is Jesus, and pointed out that Israel had demanded a king ‘like all the other nations’ and Saul had been chosen, undermining Israel’s reliance on Yahweh alone. It had not worked out well for ancient Israel and it would not work out well for us, either.
In the end, as you might guess, a pastor was appointed. It was a factor that, over time, led Judy and me to feel a little less comfortable at Horsecastle. There were undeniably some good things about the move; the new pastor, Peter Cresswell, initiated an annual Holiday Club for children from the village with fun and exciting Bible-based crafts and activities, sports events in a local field, and these proved very successful. Judy and I helped with the first two of these events.
But more and more we felt sure that the teaching about spiritual gifts having been present in the early church but now no longer active was incorrect, as was the choice of employing a pastor. These niggles turned into something stronger as we began to experience the gifts for ourselves. And it seemed to us that if you are given something, you should also be using it. But that could not be part of our journey with the good folk at Horsecastle. For that we would need a different environment, with different friends, people open to receive, rejoice in and benefit from the presence of the Spirit of Jesus in our meetings and beyond.
How we found those friends, and what happened next will have to wait for the next part of this series.
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Beth was 1¾ this month, and Debbie was almost 5-years-old. We were living at 22 Rectory Drive in Yatton at that time and Debbie would have settled in at the Infants School and made a fair number of friends. (1980)
August 2024 (6 months before publishing this article)
Click to enlarge
We were on our annual family holiday, this time at Portrush in Northern Ireland. On 5th of the month we drove to the Giant’s Causeway and spent a very interesting time looking around. Then we visited the Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge. This was quite an experience as well.
On the evening of 5th, Paz cooked steak for those who wanted it, and later I strolled around the harbour. The sunset was magnificent and I took a lot of photos, including the view of birds heading home as the sun sets.
Gas mains were being replaced in Cirencester. A team was going around, street by street, digging up the roads and pavements and fitting large bore, yellow, plastic pipes – where possible passing them through the old metal pipework they are replacing. Disruption was considerable for a week or two until the work was done and the team moved to a another street. Each property lost gas for only a few hours. Overall the work continued for months.
Cavendish House in Cheltenham closed down in February. Shopping has moved on these days and department stores are dying. I remember going to Cavendish house with my parents as a child, with my first wife before and after we were married, and noting that it was still trading much more recently – but now, it’s gone!
And we visited ‘Nature in Art‘ at Twigworth this month, too; a lovely old house with art exhibits indoors, but also many interesting installations in the gardens.
We drove up to York for a visit and to watch the Fulford School musical, ‘Beauty and the Beast’. Meredith was the beast, Verity played the part of Belle’s father, and Sara was one of the young lady ‘hangers on’ of the villain of the piece, Gaston.
It was very well done by everyone; we were highly impressed. I’d have loved to take some photos, but these days it’s not permitted.
The day after the musical we explored the city centre including All Saints Church and the Museum Gardens. The photo, taken in the Gardens, shows part of the Roman fort dated to 107-108 CE, along with a surviving tower, ‘The Multangular Tower’. The Roman masonry consists of small blocks of stone and the red strip of Roman brick. The much larger stones above are medieval. Click the photo for a clearer view of these details.
On 11th it was clear that there had been more than a thousand coronavirus deaths in China, and although the rate of infection had been reduced it was still around 6% per day. This all seemed rather worrying. By 19th the virus was being called COVID-19 and it seemed to me that we were on a knife-edge between containing the infection or facing a world-wide endemic disease like a very serious kind of flu.
I was pulled over by the police after missing an exit on a roundabout in Gloucester and braking hard. They were very nice about it. After checking my licence and finding it clean they wished me a nice day and sent me on my way.
My sister Cindy held a book signing event in Cirencester at a local bookshop; in the photo she is squeezed between copies of her latest book and various toys and other items. (Find a copy of Cindy’s novel.)
During the month I met often with my friends Mo and Sue Urbano at their home in Eynesbury, and also with a group of friends at local coffee shops. These were useful times of growing together in following Jesus to the best of our abilities. There were other people too and there are snippets of the conversations in my journal. This was a busy period in my life.
We visited Broadstone to stay with Donna’s parents, and Paul and Vanessa came down from Weston-super-Mare as well. We walked on the beach with them at Sandbanks to get some exercise.
We were living in St Neots at this time, in the old village of Eaton Ford, once in Befordshire but now incorporated into the town as part of Cambridgeshire.
Unilever Colworth’s Christian Union (CU) met every Monday lunchtime and of course the meetings were not denominational in any way since we were all from different places and denominations (or in my case from no denomination at all). This was one of the features that made it so good.
Peter Farmer visited us and stayed the night on 6th, in 2009 he had been visiting one region of Britain every month to find out how people were meeting and reaching out. Quite a project! The following day we had a great meeting at Moggerhanger House.
Driving cross country, I visited Debbie and Steve in Chipping Sodbury; Debbie and I walked to the nearby Iron Age hill fort which is very well-preserved. I didn’t even know it was there! There’s a double mound and a deep ditch between them; in the photo Debbie is standing in the entrance across one of the earthworks.
I had recently bought a new Nokia 6230 phone. It seems primitive indeed as I write this in 2025, but at the time it was an impressive little device. The iPhone appeared in 2007 and changed phones forever.
World events:North Korea announced it had nuclear weapons; and YouTube was founded (but not yet operating).
This is the kitchen, still as it was when we moved into our new home in Eaton Ford, St Neots. One of the things we’ll always remember is that the earthing on the cooker was faulty and it was sometimes possible to get a bit of a jolt from a metal pan handle. Renewing the kitchen was high on our to-do list and a few days after this photo was taken, we began taking down the old units and redecorating ready for the kitchen fitters to start work.
Near Calais
Towards the end of the month we travelled to Calais with the Open Door Church Small Group we were part of. Here we are walking along the coast path south-west of the town, I think. It was a good weekend break and fun to all be together. I can recommend it as a way to cement friendships, doing anything together is helpful.
Despite Judy’s best intentions, she had to give up working at Cotham Grammar School because of the stress and demanding hours. She was still not fully fit after some issues with chemotherapy in late 1994. Apart from her teaching job she was in really good shape and able to live perfectly normally.
For the first time in ages we were able to spend time together as a family in the evenings and weekends and that was a real joy for me and our daughters, Debbie and Beth, now 20 and 17 years old.
World events:Steve Fossett landed in Canada, the first person to fly solo across the Pacific by balloon; and Barings Bank in the UK collapsed.
On 10th of the month Debbie took a leading role in the Larchmount Players pantomime production of Tom the Piper’s Son in Yatton Methodist Church Hall. She did really well, a great performance. There were two further performances the following Saturday.
On the 20th we visited Judy’s parents in Cheltenham during the day and mine in Cirencester in the evening before driving back home.
We were living at 22 Rectory Drive in Yatton, between Bristol and Weston-super-Mare. Debbie was nearly ten years old and Beth still six.
My Uncle Dick received a letter (image above) about a book published in Cirencester in 1911. Nobody seemed to want this book at the time and my Dad gave it to me in February 1985, I was working as a microscopist and the book is about microscopy. In January 2017, I asked again if the Corinium Museum would like to have it, and this time they were interested so that’s where it can be found today. If you wish, you can read the letter, the book, and the museum form online.
Beth was 1¾ this month, and Debbie was almost 5-years-old. We were living at 22 Rectory Drive in Yatton at that time and Debbie would have settled in at the Infants School and made a fair number of friends. Judy was at home, looking after the house and I was working at Long Ashton Research Station.
I was considering ways to localise the plant hormone family of gibberellins in sections of plant tissue. The Pomology Division in which I worked was being closed down and the options were redundancy or a move to East Malling Research Station in Kent where pomology research was to continue.
Judy was looking (and feeling) very pregnant by this time. But she was in good health and there were no issues. The ante-natal classes had been helpful and we’d accumulated a lot of freebies and gifts and had bought necessary items ourselves as well. There were baby clothes and blankets, little booties and sterilising kits and bottles and teats and all the other things we thought we’d need. All this stuff fitted neatly in the basketwork crib Judy had made.
My MSc thesis was with the binders at this point. It was good to have all that paperwork and typing and drawing of diagrams (see photo) and charts behind me before the baby arrived!
I can’t be certain, but I believe this photo was taken by Judy on her way home from Aberystwyth (where she was at university) to Cheltenham, probably on a Black and White coach. That would be appropriate as the countryside looks black and white as well! I was in my final term at Bath University, and we were both working towards our finals.
World events: Tourists died in an avalanche at Val-d’Isère, France; and Richard Branson founded the Virgin Group as a discount mail-order record retailer.
Cousin Sue had her 21st birthday party on 6th of the month and Granny-in-Ireland’s 67th birthday was on 9th (she was my Mum’s mother).
School continued through February, it was my second term in the Lower Sixth, studying for A levels in Biology, Chemistry and Physics. My sister Cindy was also at the Grammar School, in the third year I think. Ruth and Rachael were still at junior school (Querns School).
World events:The Gambia became independent of the UK; and Ranger 8 crashed on the Moon after photographing possible astronaut landing sites.
One of my favourite toys at this time was Meccano; I’d had small amounts of this as birthday and Christmas presents. There were red bendy steel sheets in various sizes, green strips, dozens of nuts and bolts, wheels, axles – what fun for an eleven-year-old! But around this time I was given large quantities of second-hand Meccano parts, hand-me-downs from my cousins Tim and Jeremy. That was so exciting!
World events: The first CERN particle accelerator became operational in Geneva; and the Hollywood Walk of Fame was established.
We were living at 17 Queen Anne’s Road on Cirencester’s Beeches Estate. There were two conifers, one outside our house and another outside our next door neighbours, the Watts family.
There had been more of these trees, planted when the estate was built; but children being children the young trees had been tweaked and pulled about and most had eventually died. Mum and Mrs Watts would run out and chase the boys away, and had managed to save our two trees.
I was six-years-old and my sister Cindy was three.
We were a little family in our own, rented council house on the Beeches estate. I had a cardboard box, open at the top, containing my toys. I remember (from later) that there was a nesting stack of bakelite pots in different colours.
You could put them inside each other (I probably watched Mum or Dad do this) or you could make a tower with them (and I’m sure I enjoyed pushing the tower over).
World events:Chiang Kai-shek was re-elected president of the Republic of China; and in New York a credit card (Diners Club) was first used.
On 3rd February Dad travelled back to Skendleby, in Lincolnshire where he was a radar operator on a Chain Home RAF site. It was about a mile north-east of the village, but is not marked on the map, of course.
Mum and Dad continued to write often, on 17th he was troubled to learn that she was unwell and might need surgery that would result in her not being able to have children. On 24th he heard that she would not need the operation after all. He writes in his diary, expressing his extreme relief; and had she needed that op, I wouldn’t be here to write this now!
World events: An oral version of penicillin was announced; and Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin met at the Yalta Conference.
John Jefferies & Son Ltd had a florists shop on the corner of Cirencester Market Place and Castle Street, now the Vodafone shop. In February 1940 we can assume the vegetable-seed trade was good as the wartime population would have been growing their own produce on every available scrap of land. The ‘Dig for Victory‘ campaign would have encouraged this.
Entering the front door on the corner, there was a space for customers, with a service counter on the right and a private door opposite the shop’s display windows. Through the door and turning right, was a small, almost triangular outdoor space where buckets of cut flowers were stored, and there was always a smell of cooking emanating from the kitchens of Viner’s Restaurant next door in Castle Street.
Turning left instead brought you to a wooden staircase leading to offices on the floor above. There were also steps (possibly stone) leading down to the cellar.
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Judy’s Dad turned 70-years-old on the tenth and she made him a cake decorated with emblems representing his life so far. We met at their house in Charlton Kings, Cheltenham, with her brother Frank and his family. (1994)
Notes from bygone years – November (Remember, remember). Hint: Click images to enlarge them.
November 2023 (1 year before publishing this article)
Bristol Boxkite at Bristol Museum
We drove to Bristol to take Donna’s saxophone in for a service at Headwind and then spent the rest of the day in the city. We visited the museum and spent some time in the art gallery there. The main lobby still has the Bristol Boxkite hanging from the ceiling, reminding visitors of Bristol’s long and continuing contribution to the aerospace industry. We also walked down Park Street in the rain, investigated Bristol Guild, ate at a student cafe, and looked around the cathedral briefly. A good day out!
Erin (our cat) responded very well to steroid treatment and was fit and happy for the first half of the month, but towards the end of November she was becoming very unwell again and there was nothing more that the vet could do to help her.
JHM: I posted an article about Chuck Pfarrer and his maps of the Ukraine war; and another about Yara who lives in Kyiv. World events: An AI safety summit was held in the UK; and global average temperatures exceeded 2° C above pre-industrial times.
The Christmas cactus was in great form in November, and a couple of Streptocarpus as well.
We had a visit from two friends from the St Neots area, Jim and Kevin. Jim’s wife, Pam, couldn’t make it this time, and Kevin is living on his own. I took them down to Cirencester and we visited the Corinium Museum. Jim was suitably impressed by the tesselated pavements, and Kevin (a fitter by trade) was intrigued by Roman lock mechanisms and the workmanship of these items.
We were meeting at the Baptist Church in Bibury for a while to help encourage them with some changes and fresh ideas. I was involved in other meetings as well, and we were helping Donna’s Mum and Dad with decorating and getting about (though that was becoming harder).
I went to the election hustings where our local MP, Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown was booed and heckled a lot. I certainly wasn’t inclined to support him.
There was quite a lot of rain this month, and a dusting of snow as well. As a result there was some flooding. There’s a concrete bear (a garden ornament) on a wooden platform on the edge of Riverside Walk in Cirencester, and the bear is our water level gauge. As we walk past we see him sitting with his fishing rod on a dry platform (usually). But the photo shows him during the flooding, still clutching his rod and line.
Donna was training as a teacher but was having some second thoughts because of unruly and difficult kids, she also wanted to spend less time running the Open Door Small Group since the teaching work gave her much less available time. Meanwhile I put in a claim for my state pension and we helped some friends move house.
John, one of the guys I’d met at Caffe Nero, was grasping spiritual truths really quickly. He was asking a lot of questions and understanding everything quite deeply. I found this very exciting and immensely encouraging.
I was meeting frequently with different people, there was the Open Door small group once a week, coffee shop meetings with some friends in town, and meetings with my friends Jim, Sean and Kevin rotating around our three homes. It was all good and seemed useful, but three such different groups! Another friend, Chris, was working through Revelation and we met for coffee to discuss this too.
I took my coffee shop friends Matt and Kev to the Newforms Gathering at Kidderminster at the end of the month (photo).
I wrote a short note on the old family dining table we’d been using. It came originally from one of my Dad’s relatives and we’d used it when Judy and I lived in Yatton in the 1980s and 90s. Now we no longer needed it as we required something a good deal larger; we decided it should go to one of my daughters (assuming one of them wanted it).
We had new next door neighbours, Annette and Jerry moved into number 126. And there were major changes taking place in Unilever’s IT organisation that would affect us at Colworth where I was working.
Mum and Dad booked two adjacent holiday villas at Ross-on-Wye and the whole family spent the weekend together. It was a lovely time, a great way to keep in touch, typical of Mum and Dad to organise something like this. They were both closer to the end of their lives than any of us could have imagined, so it’s a special memory for all of us.
Mum had no idea there was an alien spacecraft hovering above her head! Click the photo for a better view.
We had a new gas heating system installed in our home – boiler, radiators, hot tank – everything. The preexisting system was old, decrepit and very inefficient, so high time to replace it.
On 4th November I flew to Schipol for Unilever business at Rotterdam.
And we had a new permanent house guest, Truffles the cat. She was a gift from friends who had more than enough cats, and Truffles preferred being a bit of a loner (though very affectionate with humans).
JHM: View the predecessor website at this time. World events: Australia decided to keep the Queen as head of state; and Kuwait revoked a 1985 law that granted women’s suffrage.
Judy was getting stronger after the problems with the attempted chemotherapy. She was out of danger and out of hospital too during November. She had lost her hair and was wearing a hospital wig, but new hair was already starting to grow and the wig would be only a temporary measure.
Judy’s Dad turned 70-years-old on the tenth and she made him a cake decorated with emblems representing his life so far. We met at their house in Charlton Kings, Cheltenham, with her brother Frank and his family.
In November I bought a new video camera to replace the one stolen in August while were on holiday. This time I bought one of the new, higher resolution Hi-8 cameras. The photo of Beth was made from a VHS copy of a Hi-8 original.
Debbie was probably playing clarinet around this time, but I don’t recall if they ever attempted a piano/clarinet duet!
World events: Dial-up internet was introduced in the USA; while the East German communist government resigned and the Berlin Wall came down.
I developed a DECO database for the Plant Science Division at Long Ashton Research Station to improve the processing and storage of bibliographic information.
This month we had a bit of a breakthrough. My boss at Long Ashton, Ken Stott, put us in touch with a friend of his who was a bank manager; we were then offered good terms on a mortgage.
During the interview we had to hide the fact that Judy was pregnant, as her income had been taken into account.
John Jefferies and Son Ltd published their Christmas bulb offer (see the full details, but don’t place an order – they’ve sold out!)
My Granny (Nor) celebrated her 80th birthday and the family gathered for photos and a short celebration at Uncle John’s house, 4 Tower Street, Cirencester.
In the photo – Back row: Cousin Tim, me, Uncles Bob, John and Dick, cousin Jeremy, and my Dad. Middle row: Judy, Aunty Betty (Bob’s wife), Pippa (Jeremy’s wife), My Mum, and Deirdre (Tim’s wife). Front row Aunty Jo (John’s wife), Nor, and Aunt Millicent (Dick’s wife).
Bonfire Night on 5th November was always an important calendar date when I was a child, and indeed right up until recently. It’s gradually been replaced by Halloween over the last ten or twenty years.
This triple Roman candle was the prize firework item in my parent’s back garden in 1964. I took a time exposure on a tripod while this one ran its course, and the photo came out remarkably well. I was 16-years-old and in the Lower Sixth at Cirencester Grammar School.
World events: NASA launched Mariner 4 to Mars; and France tested an atomic bomb underground in Algeria.
I was still in my first term at Cirencester Grammar School. My classroom was in the southernmost of the three Prefab Classrooms; the first year forms 1A, 1B and 1X had these three rooms, perhaps because they were a little way away from the classrooms for the older pupils.
It was an easy walk to the playground where the tuckshop was (it’s important to get important details sorted out as early as possible).
World events: The first section of the M1 Motorway opened; and the MOSFET transistor was invented in the USA.
I was in my second year at Querns School, and half way through the first term. I think that we had Miss Hourihane as our teacher for this second year as well as my first year, although I can’t be sure about that.
I joined the Trex Club, Mummy helped and I remember being a bit puzzled by the whole process, frankly! If you’d like to join, here are the full details.
World events: The first Godzilla film premiered in Tokyo; and a four-kilogram piece of the Hodges Meteorite crashed through a roof injuring a woman.
There’s little to say about this month, as in October I was 1¼-years-old, life went on, and we were still living in my grandparents house in Victoria Road, Cirencester. Dad continued working on the nurseries, part of the old family business.
World events: Oil was discovered beneath the Caspian Sea; and Winston Churchill supported the idea of a European Union.
Mum and Dad briefly talked about the idea of one day being married, and Dad bought a postcard of Cirencester Parish Church in the village shop in Coagh! They visited Uncle Samuel and Aunt Annie in Belfast on 23rd. On the 29th, Dad heard he was soon to be posted away from Northern Ireland, they were both very sad at this unwelcome news.
If you enjoyed this or found it useful, please like, comment, and share below. (If you don’t see those links, click the article’s title above the main photo and they will appear.) Send a link to friends who might enjoy the article or benefit from it – Thanks! My material is free to reuse (see conditions), but a coffee is always welcome and encourages me to write more often!
Journeys of Heart and Mind 
