'For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son'
Pastorate
A vote was taken by the church members inviting Brian Davis as Pastor and the majority were in favour of appointing him . Mr Davis accepted the Pastorate and was due to start in May. Accommodation would have to be found for him and his fiancé.
There does seem to have been a delay as to when the roll of Pastor actually began. This may have been due to finding accommodation but not entirely sure.
The final date for Brian to take over as the Pastor was September 16th, 1962, and an Induction service was arranged for October 13th of that year. There is a bit of confusion here because in another entry in the minutes it states that Pastor’s induction dates were June 30th or July 7th . From information that we have managed to get hold of Mr Brian Davis definitely became the Pastor in September 1962 and his induction service was October 13th of that year. Whew got there in the end.
Building fund £1,025
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It’s swapping time?
Good news - the final agreement for the sale of the land had now gone through and the exchange of contracts would be in six weeks’ time (this would be the week beginning 4th June if they were counting from the day of this meeting) A sum of 10% of the total figure would have to be paid and a date fixed for final payment. So that’s £150.00 up front and the rest later.
We are in.
A letter had arrived from FIEC and it was good news. The church had been accepted as an FIEC member.
June 6th 1962 Mr Humphries had asked FIEC if it would be possible to have a loan if the church could not raise the final payment on the land. FIEC agreed to this and a loan was available for £500.00 repayable at a rate of 1% per annum interest.
Building fund £1,477.30p
It’s all change
Final date for conveyance of land August the 14th (not as earlier stated, June or am I missing something?). Inquiries to be made for a prefabricated building, not sure what was the purpose for this building. One would assume it was for a temporary church building but it could have been just for storage purposes. The land would need fencing so this was something else that needed looking into. A wooden shed was finally erected on the site and the idea of a prefabricated build was considered unsuitable. The shed was for storage purposes and it was supplied by Harold Cashmore.
Building fund £1,688.2.1/2p June 18th, 1962
Covies
It appears that, as well as the established boy covenanter group at Braunstone, the church had branched out and tried to plant a covenanters group on the New Parks housing estate. This was a Boy Covenanters group held at Liberty Road school.
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According to the entry in the meeting minutes Mr Phil Denton was the group leader. Having spoken to Phil Denton he has assured me that he was not the leader of this group but did play the accordion for choruses.
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From what information I have gathered from Phil this group did not last long and was eventually closed.
The promised land
The sale of the land is now complete although no date for the finalisation of sale is given in the meeting minutes.
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There was now a surplus of £221.30p in the building fund after the cost of land sale but of course the solicitor’s fees would still have to be paid from this surplus. (looks like the legal side was passed over to FIEC and they became the trustees of the church holding the deeds to the land). One problem I have is this. Was the building fund for the purchase of the land or was it purely for the building of the church? I suppose looking at the statement above the building fund must have been used for the purchase of the land.
We have a Pastor
July 4th, 1962 Pastor Davis’s induction. Building had now been booked, presumably Bendbow Rise School or Cort Crescent community centre for 13th October and seating for over two hundred
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Pastor Sutton had been booked as speaker. Building booked from 2pm but service start time was 3.30pm.
I would think that this induction service was held at Cort Crescent community centre owing to the number of people that was expected to attend.
At a meeting dated Monday September 17th, 1962 (quarterly church meeting) Mr Brian Davis is present and referred to as the Pastor. As planned Mr Davis must have taken over as Pastor on the 16th September 1962 (Calendar checked, and this date was definitely a Monday 1962) Also present is Mrs Davis, so he must have got married at some stage before September that year.
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First camp
September 1962 information passed onto this church meeting from the Diaconate that they have a camp, venue North Wales. Could this have been the first visit to Wales by the Church? Thirty-nine people had expressed an interest in the camp and the cost would be £3 per person and you could even pay this weekly. (Church still uses North Wales for its camp although it would have been a different camp site.)
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This photo was taken at one of the Covenanters camps, the location unknown at the moment. Judging by the age of some of the people on this photo it was possibly taken in early seventies.
We have no photos of the first church camp but there may be some out there somewhere, so who knows we may be able to publish one some day.
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New name
October 3rd, 1962 Church members had been asked to write suggestions on a piece of paper with regards to a new name for the Church. Not sure at this point when the new name came into existence.
More bricks please
October 7th, 1962 It was decided that a building of brick and mortar should be erected on the land and not a prefabricated building. Prefabricated buildings had been investigated and a visit to Stamford where a company producing prefabricated buildings had been held. This answers the earlier question of what a prefabricated build was going to be used for. Obviously to hold meetings in.
We're getting a new fence
A fence was to be erected at the front of the land at a cost of £100.00. The fence would be constructed of concrete posts and wire mesh panels. (I am assuming that this fencing was still in place up until approximately 2017,obviously repaired many times. In 2017 the fence was removed owing to building work and the placement of car parking spaces. The curb on the main public footpath was also lowered (drop curb) to allow vehicle access.
It was reported that Mr K Terhoven had spoken to David Wesley saying he knew a man who was an expert on church buildings (the man’s name is not given) and it was agreed that David should speak to this man.
The church decided to have its own magazine and Mrs Davis (Pastor’s wife) was asked to oversee this.
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The end of 1962
The Sunday School children were going carol singing on the Braunstone estate and this would be at 6.30pm. I remember carol singing was continued up until the 1980s when Alan Stenfalt was Pastor. This was on Christmas eve but in those years it was mainly the adults who ventured out at night to sing carols. A large number of streets would be visited on the estate. Carol singing on the North Braunstone estate. Image dated 1966
If you or anyone you know are on any of our photos please contact us and let us know what your memories are of these times in our church history.
Well we have come to end of our first section of history, more will be published over the coming weeks.
Whoopy do! the bricks will soon be flying up?
Image to the left shows a section of the land sale deeds.
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Click on image to get a larger view
Memories of Braunstone
Establishing church start date and a
visit to the seaside