Sunday Schools were seen as a very important part of the Methodist Church movement. The 150th anniversary booklet records that there was a Sunday School at least from 1886, and that it finally closed in 1981.
Teachers
The following pages of the Sunday School Register for the years 1950 – 1961 show the teachers (and their attendance records). They stopped recording the teachers part of the way through 1963. The register for the following years has no record at all of the teachers.
1950-1953
1954-1956
1957-1960
1961-1963
Thanks to Steve and Deborah Allen for sight of these registers.
Phil Long has commented that his brother, Richard Long, was included as a teacher because he was a chapel organist. His mother, Mrs. A.S. Long, was also an organist, mainly for the chapel services.
Mrs. Long was also head Sunday School teacher from around the late 1940s until Mr. Barham took over that role in 1951.
Sunday School Anniversary
The following picture was taken at the Methodist Sunday School Anniversary circa 1963. Those pictured are:
Back Row (from left to right):-
- Violet Jeffery holding John Jeffery
- David Bowen
- Jill Tooke
- Wendy Duffield
- Daphne Fincham
- Christopher Cudmore
- Kenny Duffield
- Roger Parker
Front Row:-
- Lynfay Turner
- Gillian Bowen
- Keith Beales
- Alan Jeffery
This image was restored from a damaged original by Steve Allen.
Mr W. Barham
One of the two names that runs all the way through the teachers in the above register pages is that of Mr. Barham. In 1964 he was presented with a framed print of Jesus, wearing a crown of thorns and halo, carrying lantern; titled on the reverse ‘The Light of the World’; the reverse is covered in brown paper and inscribed:
‘To. Mr W. Barham, From Past and present members of the Deopham Methodist Sunday School in appreciation of 18 years loyal and devoted service/June 1964’
Image: Norfolk Museum Collections, ref GRSRM : 1996.27.3 (Gressenhall)
Certificates awarded at the Sunday School
Mr Barham’s name appears as a signature on the following certificate:
Many thanks to Wendy Eastell for providing a copy of this document.
Another certificate awarded to a star pupil of the Sunday School:
Many thanks to Gwen Rostron for sight of this and to Doug Rostron for agreeing to it being shared.
Attendances
The following graphs show the average monthly attendances at the Deopham Green Sunday School, held in the chapel itself. These figures have been taken from attendance registers kindly loaned by Deborah and Steve Allen.
The first graph shows a summary by year.
The second graph shows the movement in weekly attendance from January 1950 to December 1976:
Observation: there were generally more boys than girls.
| Date | Change |
|---|---|
| 1/2/24 | Doug Rostron certificate |
| 18/1/24 | Wendy Eastell certificate |
| 4/10/23 | Notes from Phil Long |
| 29/9/23 | Teachers as recorded in the registers + Barham presentation |
| 28/9/23 | Added missing names to Anniversary photo; revised date to c. 1963 |
| 5/9/23 | Published |
Deopham History 