Photograph from ones vaults /collection from the 60s/70s of the Church of which was on the junction of Rosemary St/Stockwell Gate /Belvedere St;/Sutton Rd.
Maybe the Mansfield folk will remember the Church as well as the buildings at the side of the Church. Buildings sadly long gone but maybe some memories the Mansfield folk can reflect in that era before dare I say, the progress of the Town took over.
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Can anyone remember the wooden gate to the Toc H at the side of the Empire, and the stone steps up to the shop next door that had tin baths and enamel pots hanging on the wall outside? You could take saucepans there to be repaired with a screw and washer.
My wife can remember the Quaker house where you would go at Easter for a hot cross bun, eat it and then nip to the back of the queue for another.
It was the Baptist Church. I think in the early ‘60s the Minister was Rev. Neave, whose children attended Broomhill School, when I was there in the 1950s. I used to go to the Youth Group at the Baptist Church. We also used to go to the Empire cinema on Saturday mornings, buying sweets from the shop near the church.
Gillian and I attended Rosemary Street 1961-1965 and our sons were dedicated there. We used to help with the Lifeboys led by Evelyn Nell (she died about 3 years ago) who gathered in the School Hall.
You could see the disused gallery which makes it pretty certain that it was originally the meeting place for Worship before the building with the spire.
Does anyone know the story that it was originally a Quaker Meeting place?
I lived in Ruth St, attended Lifeboys at the Baptist Church. Left Mansfield in 1967 and returned to Scotland.
It certainly is the old Baptist Church. They used to hold splendid choral concerts there in the 1940s, such as Handel’s ‘Messiah’ and Mendelssohn’s ‘Elijah’, with big-name singers — the most famous being Constance Shacklock and Isobel Baillie. To see the kind of big deal that engaging such singers was, you have only to look up their careers on Wikipedia or Google.
The regular church organist, until WW2 intervened, was Leonard Ward, whose daughter was (still is?) a piano teacher in Intake Avenue.
Hello John, thank you for your comments, I think you’re right with regards it being a Baptist Church. Almost sure the “New” Baptist Church replacing the one in the picture was built on the far end of Rosemary Street, I think it was across from the then Mansfield Leisure Centre, (now a Tesco store I think).
I think this picture is of the Mansfield Baptist Church which I attended during the ‘50s and ‘60s as a young boy. As children when the sermon was to start we were taken to the building to the right of the church which was the Sunday school. As an older boy that’s where the youth club was as well.
The Empire Cinema was on Rosemary Street, we used to go to the Saturday matinee. 2 films with the lady coming round with a tray of sweets and drinks to buy between films and then everyone rushing out as the final credits started and before the National Anthem. If we didn’t make it we would have to stand to attention and in silence whilst the anthem played.
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