Last updated 15:51, Wednesday, 13 February 2008

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ORGAN mistresses wearing mitts and gaiters, organ blowers asking for money for supplying wind, new roofs and church cleaning appeals are just a taste of the rich history of Egremont Parish church.

This coming year is to be a big year for St Mary’s and St Michael’s as it celebrates its 125th anniversary.

The parish was consecrated on July 3 1883 and replaced a far older church that had stood on the same site. It was originally believed that the old church had been built in the 1700s but as it was taken down to make way for the new building which stands today, it became apparent that it was actually much older and probably a church from the medieval period that had been altered in the 1700s.

Thomas Lewis Banks was the architect of the new church and he carefully supervised the demolition of the old and discovered a number of hidden gems including walls of dressed stone, windows that had been blocked up and possible Roman masonry in the foundations suggesting an even older history.

The church whose bells peal over Egremont today was built by local builder John Smith using St Bees sandstone from his quarry at Bankend.

Since researching the beginnings of the church and publicising them, current churchwarden Doris Downton has received a letter from the great-grandson of John Smith, who lives in Yorkshire.

“It’s lovely to think that there is still that connection,” she said.

Mr Smith lived at Haggert End Farm towards the end of his life and is buried in Egremont cemetery.

The new church cost around £6,000 to build and was designed to reproduce the appearance of the original and incorporated windows and arch keystones from the old. When designing the church from the old, Banks surmised that one of the twin chapels had been dedicated to St Mary and the other to St Michael – with the idea that one of the chapels may have served the town with the other serving the castle, which was in the parish of St Bees.

Much more recent alterations to the building include the “rose window” being replaced with stained glass and the rebuilding of the organ in 1994 with the addition of a second digital organ and wheelchair access in 2004.

Perhaps the biggest recent structural change to the building was the replacement of the roof last year which the Rev John Wilcox says restored his faith in the importance of the church within the community.

“We had to raise funds to replace the roof and I was absolutely gob-smacked by the response. The people of Egremont were so generous and it made me realise that they do hold the church very dearly,” he said.

Mr Wilcox will be leaving the church in 2008 to take on duties as the Rural Dean for Calder, Moresby and Whitbeck.

“I have enjoyed my time here very much and found the people to be very welcoming.”

As part of the celebration of the church’s 125 year celebrations, a calendar has been produced which features a potted history and also a photograph for each month, including the laying of the foundation stone in 1881, the church choir in 1951 and one that is believed to have been taken on the Coronation of George V.

Special services are to be held throughout the year to mark the anniversary (the first one is on January 6).

Churchwarden Doris Downton is also compiling memories from people who have either worked or been part of the church at some point in their lives.

Harold Hall, now almost 90, is one of the first to have contributed to the memory bank and tells of how he attended the Sunday school, which was in the tin chapel on Main Street and was run by Mr and Mrs W Campbell.

A children’s service was held in the church once a month run by the Rector Mr Irving Earnshaw, who was also the choirmaster.

Harold recalls how Mrs Annie Wedgewood was the organist and taught at the Central Girl’s School on Main Street. He writes: “She would catch the bus at the police station down to the war memorial which cost the princely sum of one penny.

“When she was playing the organ she would always complain of the cold due to the draft from the keys and so always more mitts. She also wore gaiters to keep her legs warm due to the cold the drafts from the organ pedals.”

When Harold’s voice broke he was moved from the choir and given the job of organ blower, which meant keeping the organ primed with air via a handle, something that is not necessary in the organs of today.

Harold says that it was not unusual to hear very weird noises coming from the organ due to a lack of air and he remembers cheekily asking for an extra shilling for his efforts when he was required to supply a lot of air to the organ for a wedding service.

“I was given a definite no,” he writes.

Doris would like to compile many more church memories and hopes to publish a pamphlet.

Egremont Parish likes to feel at the centre of the community and welcomes everybody to their services or any at any time during the day.

“I will be very sad to leave the church,” said Mr Wilcox, “but I will be leaving it in very capable hands. We have a strong following here and the church plays a very important part in people’s lives.

“We have a child attending the church who was coming here while he was still inside his Mummy, and others in their nineties, so it really is across the board.

“We would like more young people to come and it’s sad that a lot of our young people move away to go to university and the likes. But we are always building on our numbers and I think everybody is looking forward to the future.”