Behind the mask

This rather large mask hangs behind the stage in the local community centre.

Proudly built as a Sunday school in 1912, the community centre has seen quite a few changes in its' time. It used to be attached to a Methodist church that was built around the 1860s, but the church has gone and now the former Sunday school lives on as a music and arts centre, being used widely by the local community.

Designed to accommodate 450 people (no strict health, safety and fire regs back in 1912!) it had an assembly hall with a gallery (which is still there) eight classrooms and other rooms besides. Not bad for a cost of £2300.

But even in 1912 it was thought that standards of living were higher than they had ever been. It would seem that not much changes! It was said at the time that the furnishings of the working mans home could be compared to that of a merchants home in days gone by and that a Sunday school with a bare hall and only simple benches would not satisfy the child of 1912 and so the new Sunday school was built.

Things like Nintendo Wii and and iPods suddenly spring to mind!

We can make comparisons with that which has gone before us and can only try to imagine what life must have been like for young people almost a century ago.

On a wall inside the main hall is a plaque that lists the names of all those men and women who took part in a stone laying ceremony. A lot has changed in their hall but it is still being used for the good of the community. Will they approve of what goes on in their old Sunday school these days?

Monday afternoons, incidentally, is belly dancing!