Christmas Memories

                      All Saint’s Stand Church, Whitefield, England  December 1969

First posted December 24, 2009


Jim and I spent our first Christmas eve with his family in Whitefield, near Manchester, England.  After tucking into his Dad’s great chicken pie we sat around the glow-red coal fire for cups of strong black, milky tea and slices of Mum’s Irish-style Christmas cake.  

Jim’s sister Lorraine was home from  Strathclyde University, in Glasgow, so she recounted with great gusto about the exotic Scots. As time ticked toward 11 p.m. 
Jim, Lorraine  and I decided to go to Christmas eve services at the local church, All Saints Stand.

Setting off down the street, arm in arm, for the half mile walk to the church through the fog, we were filled with youthful joy, I now realize as I look back all these years later.  I specially remember the scent of urban England, the air dense with scents of coal fires and diesel fuel.  We arrived a few minutes late. The church, seating 1800, had standing room only, but we squeezed in, sang carols and our walk home was even more joyous.

Stand Church is a Waterloo church.  After the English won the 1815 Battle of Waterloo, ending the Napoleonic Wars, Parliament set aside  £1.5 million pounds (hard to calculate the equivalent in today’s money, more than a billion dollars surely) for the construction of 600 churches, as an expression of national thankfulness to God.  Stand was designed by famed Londoner, Sir John Soane, one of London's most esteemed architects. Those were the days.

Stand Church got it’s first bells in 1856 and they’ve been upgraded several times since. Jim was delighted as the bells rang in Christmas day. He’d done his share of Stand Church ng Standbell pulling when he attended  Stand Grammar high school.  

                                                 Merry Christmas!

                                           All Saint’s Stand Church bell tower

P.S. A great mystery about bell pealing is The Nine Tailors by Dorothy Sayers.