The Methodist Church is 60 years old this year (2024)
Jean Read, a resident of Tollerton has written an article for the November 2024 Newsletter:
On the 14th November 1964 200 people attended the opening of Tollerton Methodist Church Hall. Despite drizzling rain on Saturday afternoon more than 200 people stood outside the new Hall to take part in the official opening and dedication ceremony. After a brief service outside the gathering moved in the church hall designed to hold about 100. The service began when the architect Mr T H Bestwick handed the key of the door to Mrs C Leslie Godber of West Bridgford who performed the official opening by unlocking the door. The Superintendent Minister, The Rev James Jackson, then performed the act of worship which was followed by a hymn.
The cost of the building, which will be used as a church and a church hall, is £3,300 .
The trustees have been presented with a set of hymn books, Sunday School hymn books, crockery, a clock and a piano for use in the building.
Written in 2004
In 1961 the seeds were sown for the start of the Tollerton Methodist Church. We began with a Sunday School and a Young Wives’ Group. Having bought a plot of land at the top of Stanstead Avenue we then set about fund raising to build a Dual Purpose Hall to double as a Community Centre/Church. This took us three years (umpteen Jumble Sales, Coffee Mornings and making stacks of cushions) and in June 1964 we held a stone-laying ceremony which also became a fundraising event to add to the coffers. One child from each Sunday School in the Nottingham South Circuit laid a brick and all the children in our Sunday School each had a turn at laying a brick which ended up in a very crooked line, which the bricklayer duly straightened ‘just a little bit’. For many years children would point to a brick and say “I laid that one!” Mrs Francis Godfrey, who started the Sunday School at the home of Mrs Walker in Stanstead Avenue, laid the Foundation stone. Mrs Walker was a member of the old Methodist Chapel in Normanton-on-the– Wolds.
After they left the village, Gwen Barnes, Jean Rad and Roy Digweed carried on with the Sunday School in the Primary School (renting a classroom), and the Young Wives’ Group thrived, meeting in the homes of various members—and a very happy group it was too! The aims and ideals in the 1960’s were the same as today in 2004 (40 years on) to be of help and serve the community—we provided the village with a meeting place in the centre of the community for the young, the not-so-young and senior citizens, and I think we achieved the aims and intention a few young people had 43 year ago. The road has been a bumpy one at times—we had limited resources—all of us were young with small children and large mortgages (nothing changes!) – Mums did not go to work then, they stayed at home and looked after the children, and there was only one car per family if you were lucky! The young wives looked forward to going out in the evening to get away from the ‘four walls’.
The Hall in 1964 was very basic and much smaller, (we’ve had two extensions since) and the improvements are an ongoing project.