The Stocking Menders: Action Song For Girls

This week, a number of trustees joined me to tackle the two large filing cabinets in our lower room. For four years they have glowered at me, refusing to yield their secrets. We spent several hours sorting through old paperwork, retaining only the last six years’ worth of accounts, insurance policies and items of historical interest. In the accounts from the seventies, I was struck by how much money had come into the chapel over the years and how much of it had been given away. A letter from the Lancashire Congregational Union dated 1983 disclosed a donation from the dissolved Barrowford URC (formerly Congregational Church) of £232.90. We also had a number of statements from the Bank of England detailing the £7 annual interest paid on the £200 worth of war bonds the chapel had purchased during the Second World War. These were repaid three years ago, proof indeed that the government was attempting to tackle its debts.

Among the modern minutiae were items of genuine historical interest. Financial accounts from the 1870s and music books from the 1860s we preserved for posterity. One particularly delightful item, the spirituality of which might be questioned, but certainly not its relevance, was The Stocking Menders: Action Song For Girls. The first line of this thoroughly excellent songbook goes ‘Our stockings all must mended be, the knees, the heels the soles…’. It has four more jaunty lines and verses about the sheer pleasure of sewing stockings. I can only imagine the excitement on the faces of our modern Martin Top women as I suggest they learn this song, and perhaps sing it in rhythm to the needle during a sock-darning evening. An item for the next Church Meeting, I’m sure. 

 

Old chapels like ours accrue terrifying quantities of archive material. Among the mundane and commonplace are treasures and gems bequeathed us from former generations of saint.