'For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son'
It’s election time again
March 6th, 1961 Elections, it was proposed that Mr Humphries carried on as Honorary Pastor This was agreed by all and he agreed to do so. A proposal was made that Mrs Hartwell should be elected as the church Elder but after discussion with Pastor Sutton it was decided that she should be given the title lifelong Deaconess.
Election of Deacons
Mr Humphries
Mr Punter
Mr Ball
Mr Mee
Mr D Wesley
Mr M Wesley
Mr Hartland
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Deaconesses
Mrs Mee
Mrs Punter
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The money comes in
April 12th, 1961 it was reported that an anonymous gift of £300.00 had been given by a lady, no name mentioned. This was to go towards the land purchase. It’s good that The Lord supplies through His people.
May 3rd, 1961 building fund stood at £220.39p
The question now was should the fellowship approach the town clerk with intention to finalise the purchase of the land. £600.00 was available for purchase (this figure came from? £300.00 from anonymous donation the other £300.00 came from?) (New information supplied suggests that there was a second donation of £400.00, there was no stipulation given as to what the money was to be used for) Thanks to these anonymous donations the land was closer to being purchased.
Mr Humphries said “we can do it but I do not know where the other £1000.00 is going to come from”? Well praise God because it did come in.
June 5th, 1961 Mr Peter Thornton was now working alongside Mr Bill Wigston as to the drawing up of plans for the building.
At this stage the plans had still not been passed by the planning officer and Mr Humphries said the planning officer may require a proper architect be in place. This seems a bit of a contradiction as Mr Thornton was an architect. Maybe I’m missing something here!
July 5th, 1961 Building fund £406.47p
Mr Thornton had contacted Mr Fountain of Leicester City council and obtained a plan of the land. One thing he found out was that there was no access from Cort Crescent, access being from Didsbury Street only. The money in the building fund would be put in the bank and two signatories were appointed, Mr G Humphries and Mr J Punter.
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Hold the front page
Mr Thornton having redrawn the plans with slight variations had reported to the Diaconate that there was a slight possibility that we may get access from Cort Crescent.
At this point it was suggested that an estimated cost of building once land is purchased would be, Church £20,000 and school building £10,000. By school I am presuming that this referred to Sunday school as a planned youth wing was on the plans(?) This may be the building that the Church uses today as the main Church building.
School building sounds a bit confusing as there is a school within the Church at this present time (Emmanuel Christian School) but I doubt whether this was even thought of at that time. I started attending Braunstone Evangelical Free Church in 1971 and never ever recall any plans or even heard any mention of a school other than Sunday school. I recall in the 1980s that a suggestion was put forward to build flats on the land behind the present main building, but this was rejected at a Church members meeting. The first mention of a school was in the nineties and was suggested by Pastor Terry Martin. (School established in Pastor Peter Allen’s Time)
FIEC
September 11th, 1961 It was suggested that the Church should become a member of the FIEC (Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches) It was stated that the FIEC had two funds at this time namely, a start-up fund and a loan fund. It was to be put to the church membership for a vote on whether to join the FIEC or not?
Pastorate
Pastorate, Mr Peter Seal had been contacted and given a definite no, as he felt led to a work in Cheshire. A new name had entered the frame a Mr Brian Davis. Mr Davis had not been contacted at this time, but it was suggested by Brian Hartland that they should keep him in mind. (Brian Davis became the first Pastor of Braunstone Evangelical Free Church)
Access
October 4th, 1961 information had now come to light of possible access from Cort Crescent. There would be a possibility of access either through purchase or renting of a strip of land from Cort Crescent community centre. It was decided by the Diaconate that purchase would be the best option.
November 1st, The Community centre had agreed to the Church having 35 yards of land to the side of the Community centre.This had been passed by the Community centre committee and would now go before The General Purposes Committee. (the church eventually rented this land for a period of time)
February 21st, 1962 Building fund £980.75p
Back to the Pastorate
Mr Brian Davis had been contacted and he had asked two questions of the Church before he would consider the Pastorate.
Q1 Are the membership 100% behind him?
Q2 Would there be a house as he was planning to get married?
It was recommended by the Diaconate to bring the matter before the church membership but with a strong recommendation from the diaconate for approval.
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FIEC
An application was to be made to FIEC for membership and Pastor Sutton had mentioned to FIEC about the possibility of a loan and this had been passed onto the relevant department in the FIEC. The church had enlisted the services of a solicitor and informed the solicitor of their plans to seek a loan. The solicitor suggested that it would be a good idea if they passed the work onto FIEC (land purchase and legal side, Solicitor unnamed. Not sure if the solicitor continued this work or if it was passed to FIEC. (Latest information suggests that FIEC may well have conducted the legal side of the purchase as we know that they held the deeds to the land and were the trustees.)
Land ahoy
Mr Humphries was now in possession of a copy of the land sale contract and the town clerk had asked him to pass these on to our solicitor (solicitor or FIEC, not clear at this point) The land for access from Cort Crescent was to be rented at a cost of 4s:1d a week approximately 20p in today's money. This agreement was ended when the old wooden community centre was demolished and a new brick built community centre was built.
At a general meeting of the church dated March 5th 1962 it was suggested that a front entrance be entered on the plans to go before the council. The church had knowledge at that time that in the future the Community centre may be demolished. This was either good foresight on their part or information gleaned from someone, as indeed the community centre was demolished in the 90s and a new brick community centre was built. This would indeed have stopped access to the Church from Cort Crescent. The front entrance to the Church was to be on the side of the building allowing it to be visible from both streets, Didsbury Street and Cort Crescent. (I do not recall a door on the side of the building of the stage one building. When it was complete it had an entrance on Didsbury Street and would not have been visible from Cort Crescent.)
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Present day brick built community centre. Braunstone Evangelical Free Church is located behind this building on Didsbury Street
Early image of the stage one building taken from the rear of the church. There is no evidence of an entrance on the side of the building. The entrance was on Didsbury Street so there must have been a change of plans.