About St. Barnabas.

St. Barnabas Church – Bradwell

St. Barnabas Church was founded by Miss Heath and Reverend Percy Mills in the early 1950s.  They went around, visiting the houses in Bradwell, asking people if they would be interested in forming a Church of England community. The response showed that people were genuinely interested.

Miss Heath then approached the Borough Council and bought the land opposite Bradwell shops for £1.  She then had the land consecrated.

Next Father Mills acquired an old airforce barracks hut from the Ministry of Defence, when they were demolishing R.A.F. Foston Camp, near Uttoxeter.

Members of the Church erected it and gave it a coat of paint.  Chairs were acquired, as well as an alter, from Sneyd Church which was being demolished.  Miss Heath supplied some things from Greystones and so was born St. Barnabas Church.

There was a very good congregation and Sunday School and soon St. Barnabas became the daughter Church of St. Andrews.

The Bennett brothers were the first Servers at St. Barnabas.  They asked around their school friends and neighbours to see if they were interested, and hence the foundation of the Youth Section of the Church.

Miss Heath ran the Sunday School with two helpers, Nora Buckley and Jane Bennett.  They were with her until their late teens and began courting.

The Church and Sunday School began to grow quite rapidly.  Mrs Joan Gough, an early member of the Church, and still an active member today says, “I was in the R.A.F. at the time so could only attend St. Barnabas when I came home on leave.  I enjoyed every minute of it and still do”.

When the Church had been going for a while, Fr. Mills was given a curate to help him.  His name was Keith Cresswell.

The people of St. Barnabas began to save a ‘penny a brick’ every week to have the present Church built.  Unfortunately Fr. Mills died before it was opened.

The present Church building was opened on the 24^th April 1956 by the then Bishop of Lichfield, Bishop Reeves and the Archdeacon of Stoke-on-Trent, who was the Right Reverend Percy Harthill.  The vicars of St. Margaret and St. Andrew were also in attendance, namely, Fr. Snell and Fr. Bigby.  Soon afterwards a new priest joined the team - Fr. Petman; so now there were three priests in St. Andrew’s Parish.

Fr. Petman was only a member of the team for a short while and was replaced by Fr. Davies, who arrived as a Deacon.  He was ordained a vicar, before moving on to High Lane, Burslem.

Fr. Bernard Harris was also a member of the team for 2 years, before moving on to St. Matthew’s in Birches Head.

A little later Fr. Wood joined the team and he worked hard with the Sunday School and the young people.  He started the Good Friday Workshops, which encouraged the children to become involved in activities for three hours during the day.

In addition he started the Young Peoples’ Club and took the children to the Service for Young People at Lichfield Cathedral. St. Barnabas won the banner competition during the 1960s and the banner is still on display in the Church, taking pride of place.

The first baby to be baptised by Fr. Bigby was Roger David Elson, who now lives in Stourbridge, in the West Midlands.

As the congregation grew, the Church was able to start a large choir, with Mr Ernest Barber as the Choir Master.  Mrs Joan Gough is an original member and has now been in the choir for 42 years and says, “I have enjoyed every minute”.

When Fr. Lesley Hamlet became the vicar at St. Barnabas he introduced house visits, visiting most of the houses around Bradwell, encouraging everyone to attend Church.  So successful were these visits that a very large Sunday School was built up.  There were four Sunday School teachers, Margaret Robinson, Joan Gough, Margaret Deaville and her friend Christine.  The last two were actively involved until they went to university.

Margaret Robinson and Joan Gough continued to lead the Sunday School until Margaret had to give it up as her own family increased.

Fortunately a replacement was soon found as Faye Colclough came back to Bradwell from teaching Service Men’s children in Singapore.

During the time that Fr. Chris Morris was at St. Barnabas, female servers and acolytes were introduced.  Joan Gough was one of the first and still serves on the alter at the age of seventy-seven.

In the 1970s Fr. David Vale became the first vicar at St. Barnabas as Bradwell was awarded parish status.  This meant that marriage ceremonies were able to take place.  The first wedding was that of Denise Bailey, to her husband Michael.

Fr. David Vale was the vicar at St. Barnabas for eight years, before leaving the parish.  St. Barnabas was then without a priest for two years, until Fr. Graham Johnson came to the parish.

Fr. Johnson and his wife worked hard with the youth and choir, Margaret Robinson and Yvonne Wade were our choir mistresses.  The Choir began to perform concerts at Christmas time, and at Sunday morning services would sing between the Epistle and the Gospel, as well as special occasions.  They also raised valuable funds for the Church by organising Sponsored Sings.

Fr. Graham arranged for five members of the congregation to be licensed to administer the chalice, four men and one lady.

At this time Parish Garden Parties and crowning of the Parish Queens began to take place in the grounds of St. Barnabas, along with a fair which was well supported by the people of Bradwell.

After the interregnum, when Fr. Graham Johnson moved to Wolverhampton, Captain Andrew Knight and his wife Lisa came to St. Barnabas.

Andrew has recently been ordained a Deacon and is now training at St. John’s College, Nottingham, to become a fully fledged priest.

Our present Church building celebrated its Golden Jubilee in 2006.  Where have fifty years gone?  There was a special service on the 23^rd April, with all the Churches in team attending.  Fr Graham Johnson was the preacher at the service.  There followed a Parish lunch which was enjoyed by all.

In June a Flower Festival was organised as part of the Golden Jubilee Celebrations.  Arrangements were made by the people of the Church, plus friends from St.Margaret’s, St. Andrew’s and St. Wulstan’s Churches.  Unfortunately the weather at the time was very hot, and the flowers had to be watered and replaced continually. 

At the time of writing the Church is looking forward to the Festival of Trees in December, which was held two years ago and proved very successful.

The Sunday Service is held at 9.45am with a Sunday School, there is also a 10am Service on a Wednesday morning.

Every Tuesday morning a Mums and Toddlers Group meets, this has been running for 24 years.  On a Wednesday afternoon a Bingo Session is held from 1.30pm until 3pm, which raises valuable funds.

I hope you find this write-up informative.  Joan Gough.