Annie Elizabeth Turner
I lived at 48 Two Gates Lane just along the road from the chapel.
My mother and I attended the chapel most of our lives. Mom had lots of memories, especially of the year the chapel won the scripture exam and paraded down Cradley Heath with the shield.
She loved anniversary day. She would either go to Cradley Heath Market to get some material to make my dresses, or pay so much each week at Nellie Boxley’s on Windmill Hill to buy my dress. In those days there were 30 to 40 children on the anniversary.
There was also Percy Bate who played the organ at the chapel for 50 years or more. He lived at Lye and on Sunday had to come backwards and forwards twice. So mom suggested he come to our house for his diner and tea, which he did for several years and loved it. My mother passed away in February 2016 at 94 years old and still attending Two Gates Ragged School.
I loved going to Sunday school. My teachers were Pat Southall and Pat Boxley. If we attended every Sunday we would have a prize at the end of the year.
After anniversary practice we would go to Mrs Raybold’s shop opposite chapel to get our sweets. Practice would begin and Mr Cox would bang his stick and say, “Take the sweets out your mouth.” For going to the anniversary we would all get a trip to the pantomime.
I remember also the yearly trips to London with Cliff Willetts who would tell us all about it. We would feed the pigeons in Trafalgar Square. These are a few of my memories of Two Gates.
Also, my children Shane and Tracey were christened at Two Gates and both my grandchildren, Ellie and Bradley, who often help out on Friday coffee mornings.