Church Choir at the top of Tower

You were a member of the King's Messengers,
Meeting at the Endowed School,
Raising funds for missionary groups,
After the Second World War,
Then ascending Mary Magdalene's Church tower,
Sunday School and church choir,
Singing high up there in the clouds,
At spring-time Whitsuntide,
All studying the hymn book,
But casting a crafty glance at the scout camp,
Over on the green grassed hillside,
Watching the golden light sweep across the lanes,
White hawthorn, hay field and dry stone walls,
Seeing the neighbours scuttle to their shopping,
The Post Office on Butterow Hill, Mrs. Cook's by the Albert,
Down the hill to the Co-op, the corner of Spillman's,
The little grocer's and sweetshop, opposite the Clothier's,
The Post Office along the Bath Road,
Mr. Selwood's on the other side, to get some paraffin,
The grocer's up from Park Avenue, the Golden Cross,
Mrs. Price's on Dudbridge Hill, (but you'd forgotten something),
So back to Wallbridge, the butcher's and the bakery,

Ingredients needed for the Prince Albert Carnival Float,
"If I'd known you were coming I'd have baked a Cake" -
Parish Church charity and Public House generosity,
Church and State, the spiritual and the temporal,
In 1950’s Rodborough.

Mrs. Evans showed me 2 delightful photographs - the Church tower and the carnival float based on the song "If I'd known you were coming I'd have baked a Cake." Doreen allowed me to borrow the pictures, so I wrote this for her as a collage with copies of the 2 photographs.

Rodborough Church

1807

Rodborough Church before extension c 1890

Church before alteration

Lily Lusty

Choir 1946

1950s

Vicar's Wife with fag

Church Choir 1955

Church Choir 1955

Lily Lusty at Highcroft

Jim Portbury - Organist

Fete in Rectory Gardens

Fete in Churchyard and Church Place in the late 1950s