The memorial stone for the Congregational Church Sunday School was laid on Thursday 21 August 1879. The building was the result of seven years of fundraising including services of song, bazaars and donations. The ceremony accompanying the laying of the stone included the singing of hymns and speeches. A small bottle containing copies of the circular appealing for subscriptions, a list of the those who had taken part in the ceremony and a history of the Congregational Church was placed in a small cavity in the stone. After the ceremony, a tea was held at the Mechanics Institute (now the Town Hall).
The Sunday School had a large central school room, an infant classroom, offices, library, lobby and stairs to the cellar and gallery. The cellar housed the kitchen, boiler and coal cellar. The upstairs room above the front entrance was used for young men’s weekly evening meetings. The other side of the gallery housed 3 separate classrooms which were screened off by sliding doors. The lower part of the ornamental iron railings around the gallery are original with the top part added later for safety. The cost of the school was £900 with the building work being carried out by Mr Gimson of Royston.
The finished building was opened on Wednesday 27 November 1879 with a bazaar to raise the last of the funds required. The school was decorated with plants and flowers lent by a local nursery and visitors
were entertained with music, a demonstration of the galvanic battery, a fortune teller, an ‘old curiosity shop’, a weighing machine and refreshments.
Sudden death in the Kneesworth Street Schoolroom
On the afternoon of Thursday 12 July, Lizzie Oliver, the 30 year old wife of the caretaker William Oliver, was found unconscious in the Sunday School cellar.
Lizzie Olive
Lizzie had gone down to the cellar kitchen to prepare a treat for the children who were at the Congregational Church. Dr Wilson was sent for but Lizzie had died by his arrival. An inquest found that Lizzie had signs of bruising and bleeding on the back of her head which could have been caused by a fall or a blow. The inquest decided there was no possibility of foul play and recorded a fall as the cause,
although there was no evidence to show how the fall occurred.
Red Cross Service Club
During the Second World War, the Sunday School was converted to a Red Cross Service Club for men of the 91st Bomber Group based at four nearby US Airfields. The classrooms now used as lounge areas, offices, a kitchen and shower room. The club was open 12 hours a day for meals, rest and entertainments.
Red Cross Service Club
Royston was at the centre of four 8th US Army Air Force Airfields: Steeple Morden, Bassingbourn, Fowlmere and Nuthampstead. When off duty, many US Airmen came to the town to visit the pool, cinema, pubs and the American Red Cross Service Club which was housed in this building. The
staff encouraged a welcoming, happy atmosphere despite the underlying fear.
Post War
After the War, the building returned to a Sunday School. Pupils who attended during the 1950s and 960s remember being sat in rows and having to quietly listen to services. After the service, they were allowed to play and run around.
Pupils of the Congregational Church Sunday School with Rev. and Mrs Harries, c.1960.
The hall could also be rented out for community groups, children’s parties. It was used as a dance school with parents watching their children from the gallery. It fell into disrepair until it was purchased and renovated by the current landlords and offered for use as a museum.
Yorumlar