1919-1939

It had been hoped that the Ministry of Labour would have been able to hand back the Sunday School during 1919 but it was necessary to allow them the continued use of the School during 1920 at a rental of eight guineas per week.

Mr Smith Bell had sent in September a letter of resignation from his post as Choirmaster. The Trustees had asked him to reconsider, but he had felt obliged to repeat his request at the December Trustees' Meeting, Regretfully, for Smith Bell had been a tower of strength since the turn of the century, the resignation was accepted and the Trustees put forward the names of Frank Jackson, Norman Varey and Fred Wood as possible choices. Since none of these felt able to accept, Mr F J P Drake was appointed in the New Year.

The "War Memorial" committee reported their suggestions that £250 be raised as a Memorial Fund, of which £150 was to be spent on a plaque which should contain the names of all Wesley boys who had served in the War, and which should be placed in the vestibule. The remaining £100 was to be given to a charitable institution.

It is worth noting that the Trustees frequently met (as they did at their Annual Trustees' Meeting on February 14th) on a Saturday, and twenty Trustees attended to vote that £100 be given to the Harrogate Infirmary ; that the design for the Memorial Tablet be approved that only surnames and initials be recorded on the tablet without reference to rank, and that "a book he compiled. giving complete information, full name, rank, and distinctions—such book to be kept as a permanent record in the Circuit safe."

For the last six years there had been neither the opportunity for, nor the money to spend on, decorations in the Chapel and the Trustees formed themselves into a Renovation. Committee. It was decided to spend £1,035 on decorations, £130 on lighting, and (later) £900 on new carpets and cushions.

The scheme was carried out in the autumn of 1920 and the services were held in the Royal Hall whilst the chapel was being re-decorated.

At the end of 1920 Mr F J P Drake resigned his post as Choirmaster after only twelve months and Mr. Ernest Dawson was appointed to take over the duties of Choirmaster in addition to his duties as Organist.

A recommendation had come from the Leaders' Meeting in. the previous October, that Trustees and Leaders should meet together to consider a scheme known as "The Envelope System." The Trustees, having met with the Leaders, decided that the scheme should begin on April 10th, 1921. We can be grateful for the wisdom which caused them to agree to the use of the system, for, although it naturally did not solve our financial problems, we should have been very much the poorer without the regular and faithful giving which the system inspired.

The Annual Trustees' Meeting in February, 1923, contained at least two items which would interest us today. The North of England Horticultural Society applied for permission to hold their Spring Show in the Sunday School ; they have rather outgrown the Wesley Sunday School over the last forty years. The second item was the following motion : "That . . . we approve of the Scheme of Methodist Union as submitted by Conference." The voting was 8 for, 4 against, and 2 neutral. There was also sent from that meeting a request to the Circuit Stewards that they should consider decreasing the Circuit assessment for Wesley. For some time Wesley had been paying £800 to the Circuit, but the renovation scheme had left them with a £1,500 debt, and they were no longer able to bear such a large share of the burden of the Circuit commitments. For the first and only time the assessment of Wesley was decreased from £800 to £730. Strenuous efforts were made to reduce the debt and within two years the balance due to the Treasurer had gone down from £1,500 to £13. It was at this 1927 Annual Trustees' Meeting that F T Kettlewell was first elected Treasurer, a position which he took over from his father and which he has held for 35 years - no mean record.

It is interesting to note the wide variety of meetings which catered for the interests of our people in the twenties. Although the number of members was still only about 300 there were large numbers of girls in private service and in the many hotels, and for these Wesley, like other churches, sought to provide meetings of a devotional nature and also of simple entertainment. There were. in addition to the ordinary Society Classes, a Girls' Club, a Social Club for men, a Wesley Guild, a Band of Hope and a flourishing Sisterhood. There was a cricket team and a table tennis team which attained some fame towards the end of the decade. There was also a Social Hour after the evening service which used to pack the Sunday School.

The Sunday morning services were well attended and the gallery was filled, often to capacity, on Sunday evenings. Within ten years that Sunday night congregation would be lost, partly due to the Sunday opening of cinemas and partly due to the decrease in the numbers of girls in private service, but during the twenties the evening congregation could average over 500. No small part of this was due to the tremendous improvement in the music of the Church since the difficult clays of the War. Ernest Dawson, a very personable and likeable young man, was an excellent organist, and although he was probably not as good a Choirmaster as either Smith Bell, who preceded him, or Fred Wood, who was to follow him, he nevertheless inspired the Choir with his enthusiasm and brought them to a very high standard.

In 1929 a new Trust was formed which included the names of Messrs W A Thompson and Tom Hobkinson, who, with Mr F T Kettlewell who had been elected in 1919, are the only surviving active members of that Trust. One of their first duties was the appointment of a Choirmaster. Ernest Dawson had had to resign during the summer of 1928 but had returned again to the Choir in 1929. However, at the beginning of 1930 he resigned again to take a commission in the RAF and Mr Fred Wood was appointed Choirmaster, and his daughter Mary was appointed Organist, with Mr J E Hitchen as Deputy Organist. An early measure of the success of this dual appointment is to be seen in the minute of the Annual Trustees' Meeting a year later when "the provision of extra seating accommodation for the Choir was left in the hands of the Chapel Stewards." The same meeting was also no doubt pleased to grant an application from the Men's Club seeking an extension of their membership to ladies.

Wesley had had four Ministers since the Great War : the Rev J W Fielding (1919- 1922); the Rev J Fisher Robson (1922-1925); the Rev John T Green (1925- 1928); the Rev W J Morgan (1928-1932).

To the Rev J W Fielding had fallen the difficult task of gathering together the threads in the immediate post-war years the Rev J F Robson had endeared himself to the small cause at Beckwithshaw, traditionally associated with Wesley, by his efforts for them, whilst the Rev J T Green is perhaps best remembered for his work and support for the many activities in the Church. The Rev Walter J Morgan, though he did not lag behind the others in his work in the Church, was probably one of the most accomplished preachers we have ever had and was, in fact, the last preacher to preach to that crowded gallery.

In 1932 the Rev J H Bodgener arrived. He was not so talented or forceful a preacher as his predecessor but he had a simple character which endeared him to all. He was able to bring in to the Church new members who came because "Bodge" had a talent for friendship. He brought two ideas to Wesley, neither of which outlasted him, although their influence remained.

The first was the introduction of an "Order of Service" leaflet, on which, in addition to the Order of Service, were printed the various church announcements and notices. It may seem a far cry from the mysticism of William Blake to an Order of Service leaflet, but the Rev J H Bodgener was a student of mystical poetry and had a strong feeling for the solemnity and reverence of worship. ITV and the "Commercials" were unknown in his clay at Wesley but he regarded the "Notices" much as some folk regard "Commercials." His resentment of this, to him irrelevant break may or may not have been illogical, but it was real, and since the conduct of the worship belongs to the preacher, the Leaders and Trustees acceded readily to his request.

The forerunner of Moral Re-Armament was the Oxford Group, and the formation of a Group was "Bodge's" second innovation. His "Group," like many others in many different places, attracted a large number of young folk, many of whom had no previous contact with a church. It deepened the spiritual life of some but there were heavy casualties amongst those who could not accept that this was a way into the Church and not a way out of it.

The great event of 1933 was, of course, the consummation of Methodist Union, by which the Wesleyans, Primitive Methodists and United Methodists became one Methodist Church, and in Harrogate one circuit. The Primitive Methodists had been formed in Harrogate in the early years of the 19th century, and the United Methodists (or their "Reforming" forerunners) had left the old Beulah Chapel in 1851. Yet there seems to have been little of the ill-feeling in Harrogate which there had been in some parts of the country. The people of Wesley had taken a collection for the stone-laying of the 1875 Primitive Methodist Chapel, just as they had raised funds by a special effort for the building of the United Methodist Victoria Park Church. Wesley was, after all, the Mother Church and if she had been hard hit by the secession of some of her family, she recognised and understood their motives. Because of this understanding on both sides, friendship remained constant between the three churches and their eventual re-union was accomplished without strain.

The new hymn book was introduced to the Church both by a lecture by the Rev F Luke Wiseman and by an evening of hymn-singing given by the Choir. Naturally it did not receive complete and universal approval, for in the attempt to gather together the best of the hymns used by the three branches of Methodism, many hymns had to be omitted. Harrogate Wesleyan and Wesley had used three hymn books - the old "Large Hymn Book" of John Wesley was used up to 1875; a thorough revision of this book lasted until 1904, and this 1904 hymn book took us up to the present 1933 edition.

In 1936 J R Ogden was granted the Freedom of the Borough of Harrogate. The feeling of Wesley was expressed by the Trustees in the following letter : "The Trustees of Wesley wish to express to Mr Ogden their unfeigned pleasure and gratification on the occasion of his receiving the Freedom of the Borough of Harrogate, having in special regard his many services to the church both by his lectures and, in former years, his instruction to the Young Men's Bible Class, and his beneficial influence upon its members, as also his unfailing kindness and generosity to the Church." As the honour itself had been well earned, so the words of the letter quoted are a memorial to a great man.

During this same year a comprehensive scheme of decoration was undertaken in the Sunday School, and one of the first meetings to be held afterwards was a farewell tea to the Rev Horace and Lucy Ibbotson before they went to the Mission field in Rhodesia. The occasion was the Overseas Missions Anniversary at which the Rev Percy Ibbotson was the Deputation.

A sign of the difficult economic times through which the country was passing is to be seen in a record of a special meeting of the Trustees. in November, 1936. With the departure of the Chapel keeper, Mr A Dawson, the vacancy was advertised. In 1927 there had been twenty applications for the post of Caretaker. In 1936 no fewer than 439 applications were received. It was a happy choice which gave us Mr and Mrs Jim Dodd.

The Rev W Garfield Lickes followed the Rev J H Bodgener in September, 1937, and found himself plunged into the midst of a major scheme for re-decoration. Seven meetings of the Trust are recorded between October and February. There was a partial lightening of the interior as most of the woodwork, other than the pews, was painted with a light graining. The permanent results of this particular scheme are to be found in the making of one gate entrance into the forecourt in place of the original two side gates and in the steps to the gallery. These originally descended in a curve with the steps broad on the outside but dangerously narrow on the inside of the curve. The alteration which produced the present pattern of two straight and regular flights was a wise decision. Another feature of the scheme was the inclusion of gowns for the Choir, which were generously provided by Mr and Mrs J M Wade, and which have proved to be a real contribution to the dignity of the service.

During the month of February, 1938, when the decorations were in hand, the Sunday services were held in the Regal Cinema.

A Gift Day was held on March 12th and brought in £1,371, against; the sum of £1,515 expended on the scheme. However, in early 1939 Mr Lickes was able to announce that the Rev H Wadsworth had generously offered to pay the last £50 of the outstanding debt if the members could raise the first £150.

In July, 1939, Mr Fred Wood resigned his position as Choirmaster owing to ill-health. He had, in his nine years as Choirmaster, brought the Choir to a high standard of excellence. He had a fine voice himself, but was, above all else, a brilliant teacher. It was perhaps because he was a hard and demanding taskmaster that he won the utmost loyalty from the Choir.

During 1960 he was kind enough to set down for us his own story of those years. "It was quite obvious to me," he wrote, "that our first effort must be to improve the standard of hymn singing, and the Choir were very surprised when I insisted that the first half of Choir practice was to be devoted to the hymns for next Sunday. They soon realised that it really was necessary." After he had brought the Choir to the point at which they were achieving two new anthems every Sunday, he goes on to say, "We then began to think of Oratorio performances. We could not afford the time out of our weekly practices, but the Choir were sufficiently keen to take on an extra night's work each week . .. Our first effort was Dvorak's "At the foot of the Cross." and I remember with gratitude the Rev Walter J Morgan saying in the vestry afterwards that he had been deeply moved by the beauty of the singing, and by the fine playing of Miss Wood at the organ. In succeeding years we sang, besides Stainer's "Crucifixion," which was our annual event each Passiontide, various Oratorios (one each year) including Brahm's "Requiem," Handel's "Messiah." Mendelssohn's "Hymn of Praise," and "St Paul" (which we repeated in St Peter's Church at the request of C L Naylor, Esq.) We were invited by Dr Moody to join the Minster Choir to sing Brahm's "Requiem" in Holy Week, after having already sung the "Stabat Mater" in Wesley Chapel, and "The Crucifixion" in the Salvation Army Citadel during that week."

Mr Wood goes on to tell of the many honours won by the Choir during his latter years with them. They took First Place with an Honours Certificate at the Harrogate Musical Festival in 1937, and, after splitting the Choir into two halves for the 1938 Festival, Mr Wood had the pleasure of seeing his two Choirs take First and Second Place. In the solo class, Miss Lorna Wood took First Place in the Sopranos; Ernest Wrather took Second Place in the Bass, and Fred Thomas had also a First Place in the Duets. It was hardly to be wondered at that with such a Choir and such a Choirmaster, the musical side of our worship in those clays was something to remember. But Fred Wood had given unstintingly of himself during those years and he finishes his story by saying, "And so on doctor's advice 1 very reluctantly offered my resignation after completing nearly ten years of very strenuous work, which was the most enjoyable period of my life. I had never been in charge of such a splendid body of singers, whose loyalty and co-operation were an inspiration."

We wish that Fred Wood could have been with us to read his own words and to see how his work fitted so worthily into the pattern of our history.

We had already had word that the Rev W Garfield Lickes was to be taken from us to be stationed at Brunswick Chapel, Leeds, and in his place we were to have the Rev Leonard W Dickens, whose difficult task it would be to guide Wesley through the days which lay ahead. One burden had been removed, for there is a Special Minute in the Trustees' Minute Book which reads : (Sept 2nd, 1939) "The Methodist Chapel Committee, acting on behalf of the Methodist Conference, having paid a grant of £20 to aid in the extinction of the debt on the Wesley (Oxford Street) Methodist Chapel in the Harrogate Circuit, hereby declares that, after payment of the aid aforesaid, there remains no debt on the Trust, on any account whatever."