In the Spring of 1930 there was distributed to the homes on the new ‘Green Lane Estate’ that was rising rapidly on either side of the equally new Coventry By-pass between Coventry/Kenilworth road and railway, the following invitation;
It is proposed in a few weeks to commence meetings for
The initiative and responsibility will be undertaken on behalf of the Free Churches by Methodism and by the Ford Street Church in particular.
The immediate object is to hold a
CHILDRENS’ CHURCH IN THE AFTERNOON AND
Your presence is earnestly desired on
The following will be present -
Rev. T. MORCOM TAYLOR, B.A., Rev.
GEO. PREECE,
Rev. NORMAN ROBINSON, M.A., Pastor JAS. GREGORY,
Mr. T. DALTON and others.
and will conduct a Brief Preliminary Devotional Service after which proposed details will be made known and the views of all interested may be ascertained
It was from this invitation that the Church, known for so many years to the confusion of visiting preachers and speakers seeking its whereabouts as ‘Green Lane Methodist Church’, and only in recent years, more accurately, as ‘Woodside Avenue Methodist Church’, began its life.
1930 was a highly propitious time for the establishment of a Free Church witness in this area of Coventry, for the inter-war years were to see tremendous developments on the southern side of the city. Following the First World War the Corporation sponsored one of the most sensitive and far sighted forms of war memorial in the whole country by the creation of the Memorial Park. In 1926 the City acquired from Lord Leigh of Stoneleigh Abbey an area of over 2,200 acres, and prepared a plan which ensured the preservation of the rural character of the whole route between Coventry and Kenilworth, thus giving the city its most beautiful approach road. Then in 1929 the hamlet of Stivichall, with its little cottages and its tree-lined green, a splendid example of a Warwickshire woodland clearing settlement, was acquired from the Gregory family, the local lords of the Manor, and preserved as a small oasis of green in the fast-changing district.
But at the same time the 20th Century was making its demands and work had begun on the creation of the road that would take the London - Birmingham traffic round the southern edge of Coventry. As this work progressed through the 1920’s and into the 1930’s, so there grew up at various points along the new road, small housing estates, each with its public house, its small group of shops, and in some cases its local primary school. The Church of England responded to the needs of the new estates by the incorporation of them into its parochial system and, where necessary, by the provision of new churches, but there was as yet no organised Free Church community.
Such is the background to the development of our ‘Patch’, and it was to the people of this estate, still settling into their new homes, still perhaps without any really developed sense of community, that the invitation quoted above was sent.
That there was a worthwhile response we can have no doubts, for in the late summer of the same year an article appeared in the “Methodist Recorder” over the initials H.M., entitled ‘Peeps at Living Methodism - The Home of the Motor-Car - The Charm of Old Coventry - A Great Methodist Advance’. The ‘Great Methodist Advance’ was, in fact, the newly planned Central Hall in the centre of Coventry, and the article was largely devoted to this scheme, but tucked away in the body of the article is this paragraph; “This Sunday saw the Beginning of Methodist services in a new area, Green Lane. The Coventry No. 1 Primitive Methodist Circuit is sponsoring the venture, with the cordial support of the Wesleyan Circuit. For the present the services are held in the only available building on the estate, the Kenpas Hall, the hire of which costs £150 a year, but this is only a beginning. The prospects of this development are excellent”. The date of the article is September 11 th 1930 so we may deduce that the first official service at the Kenpas Hall was held on Sunday September 7th 1930-the real birthday of the Church.
The extract from the “Methodist Recorder” article reminds us that the new Methodist community was sponsored by the Coventry No. 1 Primitive Methodist Circuit. The Mother Church of that Circuit was the Ford Street Church in the centre of Coventry, itself the daughter of the original Primitive Methodist cause in the town, the Old Grove Street Chapel, founded as long ago as 1835. In 1930 the Superintendent Minister of the Ford Street Circuit was the Rev. John Kinnish, who was to guide the new ‘cause’ at Green Lane through the first five years of its life, and who conducted that first service in the Kenpas Hall.
In 1932 great steps forward were taken, both in the life of Methodism as a whole, and in that of the Green Lane fellowship. This was the year of Methodist Church Union, when Wesleyan, Independent and Primitive Churches united to form The Methodist Church. For the people at Green Lane, however, a decision of local but nevertheless vital significance was taken. The Kenpas Hall was purchased by Stivichall Church and so the Methodist congregation was compelled to look ahead to provide for itself permanent Methodist premises. Thus faced with a real challenge to its survival the Society set about its task with some vigour. A Church Trust was created, its first meeting was held on October 28th 1932, and its first officers were Mr. L.”Parsons (Secretary), Messrs T. Dalton and P. Jones (Treasurers) and Mr. E. J. Parsons (Organist), but throughout these formative years the members of the young church were frequently guided, checked, controlled and advised by the Rev. John Kinnish, and encouraged by his colleague, the Rev. Norman Upright.
Perhaps the most important of the early meetings of the Trustees was that of August 25th 1933 at the Kenpas Hall when, “This meeting being of particular interest to Society members of the Green Lane Methodist cause inasmuch as it was the first meeting when definite arrangements could be made for the building of our Church Hall, members of the Management Committee whose meeting took place immediately previous to this, were invited to remain and hear the following business discussed”. And “the following business” included a report of a visit made by the Rev. John Kinnish and Mr. T. Dalton to the Connexional Chapel Secretaries in Manchester to discuss the Chapel Department’s proposed financial assistance and conditions attached to the making of grants towards the new Hall, an explanation by Mr. C. Redgrave, the architect, of his plans, and approval of the scheme for the building of the new premises on the site at the corner of Woodside Avenue and Kenpas Highway.
The next twelve months was one of the busiest, most nerve-racking, and, ultimately, rewarding periods in the history of the Church. It was a time of fund-raising events, special services, and apparently endless meetings, but at last on Saturday, March 10th 1934 the Stone Laying Ceremony took place. A local newspaper report describes how “Members of the Society, together with various ministers and friends, proceeded from Kenpas Hall to the building site” where “there was a large gathering in the open space in front of the site for the stone-laying ceremony”. One of the most attractive features of the ceremony was that the trowel used was that employed in the stone-laying of the Ford St. Chapel, the headquarters of the former Primitive Methodist Church in Coventry, while the mallet was that used at the stone-laying of the new Central Hall, the successor to the old Warwick Lane Church, the home of Wesleyan Methodism in the city, - “a real Methodist Union” as Mr. Kinnish observed.
Almost exactly six months later, and four years almost to the day after the first service at the Kenpas Hall, on Saturday, September 8th, 1934, the new Church Hall was formally opened by one of Coventry’s leading citizens, Councillor (later Alderman) Alec Turner, in the presence of a large company of people which included the Mayor of Coventry, Councillor T. J. Harris, who read the lessons at the opening service. As on the occasion of the stone-laying the congregation assembled in the Kenpas Hall, and after a prayer led by the Rev. Norman Upright, who had recently left the Circuit for Birmingham, a procession was formed and moved across the highway to the new hall where, after the singing of the Doxology, Councillor Turner performed the opening ceremony. Councillor Turner then unlocked the doors, and the gathering spoke the Lord’s Prayer, and commenced to sing the hymn, ‘All people that on earth do dwell’ - As they reached the third verse (O enter then His gates with praise) a move was made into the hall where, subsequently, a special dedicatory service took place
That evening what was described as a ‘Thanksgiving Demonstration’ was held, Addressed by the Chairman of the Birmingham District, the Rev. F. H. Benson, and the Secretary of the Coventry Free Church Council, the Rev. H. Ingli James. The Rev. John Kinnish spoke to the congregation about the progress being made towards the settlement of the financial debt incurred by the undertaking of the new venture. At that moment the sum in the Building Fund stood at £2,231 17s. 2d., which left approximately £1,400 to be raised . (This debt, which remained something of a millstone around the neck of the Society for a decade, was finally cleared in 1945).
The evening meeting on the day of the Opening was also addressed by the Rev. George E. Wiles, the Home Missions Secretary of the Methodist Church, who also preached at the services on the following day. In his remarks on the Saturday evening Mr. Wiles said that “the building was plain, chaste, and homely. He hoped many people would make it their spiritual home, and that the congregation would realise their great opportunity and scope in the district around them”.
During the rest of that memorable month of September there were special services each Sunday and the Green Lane congregation heard sermons from the Revs. F. H. Benson (Chairman of the District), T. Morcom Taylor (formerly of Coventry Central Hall), and their own much loved John Kinnish.
In an unsigned article on the back page of the programme for the opening of the Church Hall there are these words: “In opening this Hall we can reverently say, The Lord hath done great things for us whereof we are glad’ “. The promise of that first tentative beginning - the invitation to the “brief preliminary devotional service” and discussion of views and hopes, the first full service on that September evening in 1930, the optimism of the stone-laying in the Spring of 1934 - all had been brought to the fruition of a new building specially dedicated for the worship of God by “the People called Methodists”.
But, as those present at the opening in September 1934 would undoubtedly confirm, and as we to-day know, the story had only just begun. Through the years of the Second World War and the spectacular growth of Coventry in the post-war period, before and after the creation of the new Coventry Circuit in 1946, facing the challenge of an ever-changing population in the southern part of the city, the life of the Church in Woodside Avenue has continued. Faithful service has been given by ministers and laity, the premises have been impressively extended to meet the needs of the diverse activities of both church and neighbourhood, and the Christian witness has been maintained.
“The Lord hath done great things for us wherof we are glad”. As we celebrate let us dedicate ourselves to the future with faith.
I am particularly grateful to Mrs. Harry Jones of 105 Woodside Avenue, for lending me her late husband’s unique scrapbook of cuttings, programmes, etc., on the life of Green Lane Church.
I am also grateful to Mr. A. Hicks for providing me with the article from the Methodist Recorder of September 11th 1930.
In the writing of this article I have made use of material from the following sources also:
‘Coventry - 600 Years of Municipal Life’ by F. Smith (1945)
‘200 Years of Methodism in Coventry’ ed. A. E. Peck (1979)
‘The Trustees’ Meeting Minute Book of Green Lane Methodist Church’