st_peters_church

Built in the early part of the twentieth Century to cater for the influx of workers and their families who had arrived to work in the local industries, St. Peters is located on Oldgate Lane opposite what was known as Dahn't Backs. The Parish of St. Peter was linked with that of St. Leonard's Church.

The first girl to be married in St. Peters was from the Helliwell family.
In 1923 the Rev. R. Gregory was the cleric.
Roy Nixon recalls
Around 1945 Mr. Nixon of East Vale Drive was in the choir at St. Peter’s, worked at Silverwood and also played cricket for Thrybergh The vicar at the time was the Rev.Guy Cook who later moved to be vicar at Tickhill.

Peter Smith recalls
I remember the annual Christmas fair held in the church hall (under the church) where Mr Kinsey who seemed to do everything regarding maintenance and running of the church also dressed as Father Christmas in the grotto. I was a choir boy at St Peter's between 1958 and 1963. The remembrance day parade used to assemble at the top of Whinney Hill outside St Peter's. The pit band with Fred Kelly on the bass drum used to March up the hill from the Miners Club (baggin) before assembling with the parade for the march to the cenotaph - which was then in the pit wood.

There was a Reverend Phillips at St Peter's in the 1950s.
Other members of the church choir in the 1950s/60s Tommy Knight, Stuart Morte, Johnny Beresford, Mr (Joe?)Tuke.

Organist of St. Peter's, Stephen Purshouse. 1966 - 1969
I was always involved with St. Peter’s in one way or another. My aunt, Annie Crosley, played the piano for Sunday school there, for Mr. Kinsey, who taught the school. It was difficult for Annie as she had mysteriously lost a finger on one hand, but she was able to belt out a hymn tune for the children. Annie used to fill in as organist.

whenever Mr Cook was ill or away and it was from watching her that I decided to try to teach myself to play too. A couple of years later, I was playing Bach and filling in also. When Mr. Cook decided to take up a new post nearer to his home, I asked Canon Dixon if I could take over. He was not convinced, but agreed to try me for two weeks. Dressed in white robes, with a black surplice, my first service had me a nervous wreck! But it went well, with relatively few errors. I was just 15 years old. Canon Dixon was convinced by people in the congregation that I’d be OK, and I played, except for two weeks off in the summer, at every service thereafter for three years until I had to stop to go to University .

Stephen Purshouse Douglas Holburn [ Pictured above with Stephen] took up the post of priest at St. Peter’s under Canon Dixon shortly after I began as organist. He was a gentle, kind man who came to us after a stretch as a Captain in the Salvation Army.

He played the accordion and was a master of achingly long beautiful cadences that pulled at your heart strings. I think that he had made some of the same connections as I had. From him I learned not to be rigid in rendering a piece of music – the notes, while more than a suggestion, should not be a straight-jacket. It is alright also to make a mistake, but you have to be ready to recover and carry on rather than just stall and begin over. He and I got through many a wedding (and many a funeral) together. Oddly, I recall avoiding Douglas’ wonderful harmonies at funerals – they made people cry too much.

The service I loved most was the midnight communion on Christmas Eve. It was always packed and the carols were such a pleasure. Everyone went home tired but elated, and we got to sing the usually unsung verse that begins “Born this happy morning”, something you couldn’t do at any other time.

Douglas and I were together for about three years. He left St. Peter’s to run his own show in a parish near Durham, and I visited him there frequently.
Stephen Purshouse

St Peter Church Choir

Photo courtesy Peter Smith

Photo courtesy of Peter Smith St Peter's Church Choir doing a tour of the backs circa 1959 L-R Stuart Morte, Fred Green (at back), Johnny Beresford, Tommy Knight, Sidney Lakin, Alan Green (hardly visible at back), Peter Smith (me), Don't know. I don't remember why we did this tour of the backs singing hymns. We would stop every 100 yards or so and sing. We did it every year.

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