Don’t forget our OPEN DAY on the 18th October held at the Senior Citizens Centre, Broadmeadow Lane, Great Wyrley, 11am-3pm.
There will be photos of Then and Now, and a Coal mining display, also our archives will be open for anyone to view. There will be someone on hand to help you get started with your finding your relatives in the 1921 census. Bring your old black & white photographs and get them changed into a colour print for only £1 to members (Theses colour prints will need to be ordered and will be delivered to your home or can be collected at the next coffee morning).
The History of Great Wyrley Wesley Methodist Church and Metthodism – 100 Years and Beyond. Guest Speaker – John Devey
John Devey – Guest Speaker
This year we celebrate 100 years of the current Wesley Methodist Church building, which opened in 1925 at the corner of Shaws Lane and Walsall Road. It is the third building to stand. But the story of Methodism in Great Wyrley goes back much further, nearly 240 years. So really, we’re standing on the shoulders of generations who kept the flame burning long before these walls were even built.
Let’s start right back at the beginning, with the man whose name we all know: John Wesley. He was born in 1703, became a priest in the Church of England, and through his very methodical approach to Bible study and devotion, gave rise to what we now call Methodism. That’s actually where the name came from: his “methodical” way of living out his faith.
Wesley travelled thousands of miles across Britain and Ireland, mostly on horseback, preaching in fields and market squares, anywhere people would listen. He gathered ordinary folk into small groups to pray, study, and look after one another. Under his guidance, Methodists became leaders in many causes of the day; from education to the abolition of slavery, and he even encouraged women to preach, which was quite something in the 1700s!
On Friday 15th August it was all about being in the right place at the right time, too catch a glimpse of the Red Arrows as they soared through the sky overhead of a nearby village. It was an amazing sight, remembering 80 years since VJ Day. There are not many of the old soldiers left now. The one’s that were there are still battling on and doing us proud. It’s been an interesting three months since the last magazine. We’ve had a great variety of guest speakers and want to continue bringing you the best quality speakers as it is proving very popular, we are gaining new members each month. Carnival Day we had lots of interest on the stall, the only down part of the day was finding out that our notice board out site the Health Centre on the Quinton Shopping Centre had been vandalised. The money the members put into the society helped to pay for the building of it. Fred Pritchard put £250 and we put up the rest, £750. It was repaired, hopefully the cretins won’t come back again. On 24th July at our open evening we had members and non-members join us, some even went onto The Star Inn after, well, it was very hot that night. We’ve had some wonderful weather, with four heat waves between June and mid August. The last time we had the hottest July, was 22nd July, 2022 with a record temperature of 40.3oC in one part of the UK. Previous to that, it was in 1976 and 1957 that it reached 35.6oC and also August 2003 it reached 38.5oC. On a sad note members, Bill Meredith, Ann Gaytten and Ken Bridge have passed away. Ken was brother to Pam Ball, he had been a member of our Society from the beginning.
If you would like to read our society magazine, it is available to members as part of their membership. For non-members, you can purchase a copy by contacting one of the committee.
Our guest speaker Kath Reynolds gave an interesting talk on weddings through the years and all things related to that special day. It’s amazing what you need for a wedding. It seems like the list has got significantly bigger over the last hundred years. If we look back at weddings from the 1920s, the Wartime and the Great Depression shaped modest practical weddings. church ceremonies were the normal type of weddings which were usually small, family-focused event. The list wasn’t that big at the time and neither was the budget. There was non of this spending thousands on a wedding dress or on the wedding reception for hundreds of people. The bride’s dress were often homemade or borrowed, with a modest veil and bouquet, which was also, homemade from local flowers. There was no honeymoon then, maybe a local trip if the was lucky. Wedding gifts were often practical gifts, like linens or food. In 1947, Queen Elizabeth II’s wedding saw the rise of consumerism influenced couples. Church weddings were still dominant, but more couples began having larger receptions. Registry office weddings grew more common, especially for civil ceremonies. White wedding dresses became the ideal (inspired by royalty). Engagement rings became standard (thanks to De Beers’ UK marketing). De Beers’ marketing efforts in the UK, spearheaded by the advertising agency N.W. Ayer, focused on establishing the diamond engagement ring as a symbol of lasting love. This included creating the iconic slogan “A Diamond is Forever” in 1947-1948 and providing newspapers with details of diamonds worn by Hollywood stars and wives of political figures to serve as aspirational role models. This also saw the rise of wedding cakes with tiers. Honeymoons became an important part of a wedding, which were often UK seaside destination or if they were lucky, a short trip to France.
Princess Diana’s wedding in 1981 changed everything, with the puffed sleeves, cathedral-length trains,and big budgets became fashionable. This saw the rise of television and magazines promoting dream weddings. Weddings from this point grew in scale, cost, and expectation dramatically.
On the 1920s guest count would be 20-25. By the time we got to the 1980’s it was more like 80-100 guests. From 2000 up to now, it’s more like 100–200 (with evening guests often added).
Kath Reynolds is very knowledgeable in all things to do with weddings and the audience was most taken with it, she’s been a few times with talks to the Society members and always been well appreciated.
It’s always interesting to read the stories from the Chronicle Newspaper about Great Wyrley. It’s the only free newspaper you can get in the area, that’s if your early enough and quick enough to manage to get a copy. The Chronicle Newspaper is produced by The Midland News Association (MNA Media), and has been running since the 1980s. It publishes one of the UK’s biggest-selling regional daily newspapers, The Express & Star, and its sister title, The Shropshire Star. The Express & Star started in 1889, though the newspaper’s history can be traced back to 1874 with the Midlands Counties Evening Express. The newspaper was formed through a merger of the Express and The Star.
