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The Parish Churches

The church is where we went every Sunday for Sunday School and for Scouts’ church parade once a month and where children were often allowed to pump the organ bellows before an electric motor was fitted. Far from being a chore, it was sought after fun by mischievous boys who would judge when it was very close to running out of air so as to scare the organist without quite bringing the thing to a wheezing halt.

St. John’s was one of two churches in the parish, the other was St. Christopher’s in the middle of Cove. The vicar was Reverend Poole although St. John’s was mainly the domain of the Reverend Roberts who lived on Pyestock Estate.

St. John’s - March 1958

A neighbour’s wedding

The General Records Office register of marriages records that Avril Jean Byrne married Morris Arthur Huggins.
Avril lived with her parents and a younger sister at 69 Twelve Acre Crescent.

The church and churchyard.

Rosemary Knight stands by the wedding car.
Houses in Twelve Acre Crescent can be seen through the trees.

Leslie Knight crosses the road.

More photographs of the wedding
Photographs of Alice Byrne, Avril’s mother

St. Christopher’s - March 1959

Mother’s Union Play

Vera Knight, bending.

Vera sitting, far right.

Vera standing, far right.
Rosemary in the front row of the audience.

Vera was a member of the Mother’s Union from when she first arrived in Cove until her death 49 years later holding various committee jobs and occasionally dragging Malcolm and Rosemary up to Mary Sumner House, to wait outside while she did business inside the Union’s HQ building. For most of those years she was also a member of the Young Wives’ Group.
St. Christopher’s Church hall was the venue for parish events including the children’s Christmas parties and as can be seen above, the occasional stage production.

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