Normanby Chapels and Village Memories
. . . . by Keith Thompson   sent 2nd April 2022  

Hello,
   I'm sure the Methodist Chapel photographed in the early 1900s [on your Home page and shown opposite] was known by a different name when I grew up in Normanby (which is where the new one now stands).
   Normanby Methodist Chapel was further down Cleveland Street, just above the Cleveland Pub.
   I know that there was an intense rivalry between both churches, it was only ever muttered in a low voice, in conversations we youngsters weren't supposed to hear.
   As someone who went to the one now no more, from being  baptised and taken in, through Sunday School Concerts with my new sandals and youth club holidays, to actually leading the youth club until I left the area I'm sure my memory hasn't totally left me.
   Wasn't the one shown The Prims -
                  - Normanby Primitive Methodist Chapel?
Regards,
           -------------Keith Thompson------------
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Webmaster (5 April 2022):
Thanks for contacting us Keith.
   You are right that the photo on our Home page depicts what was originally called the Primitive Methodist Chapel (on the corner of Patten Street and Cleveland Street).
   As you say - further down Cleveland Street was the United Methodists Chapel (I think) the one you attended.

   The 1932 Methodist Union joined together the religious groups Wesleyan Methodists, Primitive Methodists and United Methodists to form what was then known as simply the 'Methodist Church'.
   The chapel in Cleveland Street was then used for various purposes (including eventually for the Normanby Youth Club) before the site was sold and the chapel building demolished and houses built.    The proceeds helped fund the demolition and rebuilding on the site of the original Primitive Methodist Chapel.

   I would like to add your communication as an item on our Message Board if you agree?
   Can you please tell  me what years you were in Normanby?
   Which years did you lead the Youth Club?
   And where do you live now?
Thanks for any info.
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Follow up by Keith Thompson (5 April 2022):
Hi there,
   I’ve a lot I can add - most I've no doubt you already have - but you never know.
   I was born in Normanby in 1948 and I grew up there for the first five years at 67 West Street (it's no more) and from 1953 at 40 Windsor Road (Billy Bell built them).
   We moved to Windsor Road on Peter Freary's handcart - he was the village painter and decorator as I recall.
   Our next move in 1966 was to Oakland's Road at the top of the 'Titty Bottle Park' in to one of the bungalows built by Mr Balderson on what was East Farm Normanby stack yard where Mr Gildroy farmed.
   Wilf Kell and his wife had West Farm - their son Maurice went to Eston Technical College along with others like Alan Tewson from Eston who had the milk round and then the fish shop (tin hut) near South Eston School.
   I married and moved to Enfield Grove in 1970 - finally leaving Normanby in 1975 - so Normanby had occupied all of my formative years and early married life.

   Holidays were spent either camping with Eston Scouts at Shaking Bridge Farm at Hawnby (we went there in Earl's? Removal Truck with all the tents, pots, pans and Scouts inside it) or in a wooden hut on the sand dunes at Marske (transported there in Billy Buxton Taxi - he lived on the right hand side of the road just below the level crossing).
   Interspersed with these were the trips to the Illuminations at Blackpool which Mrs Lucy Towers organised.    She lived in Paddy's Row with her husband Bill and family: Tom who became a policeman and married Judith Taylor; Wendy; John who married Janice Cargill; and Susan who is my age.
   My Aunty Jane Farr lived at No.8 Paddy's Row with Uncle Alf plus children Ken and Ann.
   Ken Farr was the leader of the Youth Club for a few years and I took over from him around 1971/2 until I left in 1975.
   Albert Prest was the leader for many years (he lived at the top of Cleveland Street in Parrington? Place) taking over from Wilf and Maud Sayers who lived at the top of Lambton Street.
   It was they who took me with other club members to the Methodist Youth Hostel in Guernsey - all the way there and back behind a steam train from South Bank Station, changing at Kings Cross to Waterloo Station and down to Weymouth on the boat train before boarding the St.Patrick (a ship with no stability) for the crossing to Peter Port.    It was a holiday I took three times with the club - wonderful memories!

   We as a club did all sorts of things: barbecues up Flatts Lane; a walk to the Cross Keys after chapel on a Sunday night; sledging on High Bank; and the Bank holiday bus trips to various places where it inevitably rained - not that it stopped the community singing in the bus as we headed home.
   You had, I think to be a teenager to join the youth club which I did in November 1961 embarking on our first foray to Guernsey in 1963.

   As I recall the Chapel I went to was still in use into the late 1950s early sixties before it was gutted and redeveloped as a youth club/community centre with a coffee bar, kitchen, an upstairs games room, main hall and a meeting room, before being knocked down completely as it is now.
   I can still see the chapel in my mind as though it was yesterday sloping down hill from the main door, and remember standing at the front to say your poem as part of the Easter Sunday School Concert - you were guaranteed new sandals and clothes for that day!
   There was an intense rivalry between both Patten Street and Cleveland Street Chapels - families were entrenched in one or the other - good friends outside but not when it came to chapels.

   Normanby Primary Schools Head was Mr. Snow when I started in Mrs.Cromarty's class (her husband was the Coal man as I recall).    Miss Horsfall took us on at aged seven or eight - her grandfather helped to develop the Castle Museum at York primarily the street with all the shops in it, as she proudly told us.    Ken Oversby took us from aged 10/11 before we left - Ted Jennings by then was the Head Master.

   There's lots more but I've probably bored you to death, my apologies.
   One thing I'm puzzling over: in my mind there was a small pub round the corner from Jackson Hardware Store heading to Lambton Street effectively half way between the Lambton and the Cleveland, called the Brown Jug - am I dreaming?

   Regards,
           -------------Keith Thompson------------
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Webmaster (30 April 2022):
Thanks for that Keith.
   It's good to hear memories of Normanby residents - and so enbable them to be recorded here.
   Hope that this stirs the thoughts of our readers and provokes some responses!
   Do send us any additional memories that this has stimulated via our Contacts page.

   What does anyone remember of the 'rivalry' between the Normanby chapels?

   I've added Keith's query about the Normanby 'Brown Jug' to our Appeals page.

PS  I found that our Article 'Normanby Methodist Youth Club' has a photo with Will and Maud Sayers front centre.
  I also found an image about the opening of the Youth Centre in 1965 as well as two photos somewhat later (dates unknown) from our archives.    These are shown above alongside your memories.
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