Lighthouse - History

1944 - Court Hey Sunday School started on July 12th 1944 in a room, which had been a hayloft. The start of the Sunday School came just five weeks after D-Day, and almost a year before the end of World War 2.

1953 - About two hundred young people were on roll at this time.

During the next two decades the Sunday School organised many events including annual picnics, and Christmas parties, and the Sunday School superintendent organised Garden Parties which included the crowning of the Rose Queen and fancy dress competitions. Leaders and members of the Sunday School performed many memorable plays. The church moved building.

1973 - Karen Brook, the final Rose Queen, was asked to lay the foundation stone for the building that we worship in today.

After the opening of the M62, numbers in the Sunday School dropped to a low of 4 in the Junior department, but they began to rise slowly. Scripture exams were an important event for many years, and pupils from Court Hey always achieved good results.

1993 - The Sunday School became the Lighthouse, activities continued, including holiday clubs, which ran for a week during the summer holidays. Some young people, who had been pupils, became leaders.

1994 - The Lighthouse celebrated it’s Golden Jubilee with forty young people on roll. As well as teaching, activities continued including days out parties, and nativity services at Christmas, some young people worked with a local artist Stephen Charnock, to produce a ceramic mural in the subway by the church. Lighthouse staff have helped to organise annual Youth Services and Infra Read, produced a summer activity book for younger members.

2004 - The Lighthouse celebrated its Diamond Jubilee with twenty two members. A former member and leader remembered:

Memory 1 - Hazel Graham

My first memories of Court Hey are as a child attending afternoon Sunday School in Bibby’s canteen, this was situated near to where the National Wildflower Centre is today. The canteen had a tea bar at one end where refreshments would be served to their employees. Children of all ages met together at first before going into their various groups, our group used another room at the back of the canteen and we all sat around a billiards table. The thing that stands out in my mind from the early days was the warm friendly smile on the face of our first minister the Rev. T. John’s Martin. We all loved him, he was like a cuddly granddad. (2004)

Memory 2 - Norah Taylor

I started as Primary + Beginners leader in 1958 in the little room at the back of the hut. Then when our lovely new church was built we had the long vestry behind the church and later still, the upper room in the current building, where I stayed until I handed over to Ruth in 1993. I remember all the many teachers and the love they showed to the children over the years - different teachers - different children - different times - different buildings, but always the same love in the name of Jesus.

The new church, now wiped out by the motorway was lucky to have a new housing estate on the doorstep - with many first time members with young families. People used to marvel at the number of children streaming up Greystone Road to the church for 3 o’clock on a Sunday afternoon.

I remember the early Christmas parties and more recent ones.

We had great garden parties with Rose Queens and fancy dress for all the children. The teachers spent hours making and sewing paper roses onto sheets to disguise the trucks we used to transport the queens and their retinues, and the toddlers as we processed round the district, led by the Boys’ Brigade and their super band. The helpers did very well with their collecting boxes, especially at the public houses!!

Today the children are fewer, but the Lighthouse does a great job, and everyone looks forward to the Youth Service. It is good for us oldies to see the new talent collected in one place on the platform at the end of the service. It gives us a chance to show our appreciation for all their good work. (2004)