Saints at the heart of
HAVING looked at how Mormonism began in Lancashire, and other parts of the country, we now take a look at the impressive structure in Preston New Road known as The Church of Jesus Christ of The Latter Day Saints’
As with the fairly new temple just outside Preston, the Preston New Road structure in Southport could also be seen as a fitting tribute to the zeal of the early missionaries we mentioned last week; the fruit of their labours preserved the life-blood of the Mormon Church, as well as those brave souls – several from Southport – who left these sandy shores to trek thousands of treacherous miles, all in the name of faith.
In 1957 great emphasis was placed on creating a building fund and members began to work very hard and creatively to accumulate the necessary monies.
As well as outright donations, there were all kinds of fundraising ideas and schemes, starting with homemade products such as treacle toffee and parkin, which became famous in the region.
Soon the dream of having their own chapel was becoming reality, despite the early 1960s comment by a Manchester District President – obviously not blessed with the gift of prophecy – saying: ‘There will never be a branch of the church in Southport.’
Although the longevity of the faith had been a long road, but work on a church – or chapel – building began, with a groundbreaking ceremony, in 1962, and the resort’s architecturallypleasing Church of Latter Day Saints opened in 1965.
Preston New Road, directly linking Churchtown to Crossens and Banks, had been built in 1924 at a cost of £44,000, and officially opened on July 29, 1925 without ceremony – although the first person to traverse the new thoroughfare was 80-year-old Nicholas Wright, of Marshside, on his oldfashioned tricycle.
In the June the corner site with North Road (also created in 1924) – virgin land, formerly just an unkempt field that had become an ‘eye-sore’ – had been cleared. People began to wonder what was happening, and when the foundations were laid they wondered what kind of building was under construction.
Within months the structure’s shape spoke for itself, and a sign proclaimed to inquisitive passers-by that this was to be The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.
The next speculative thoughts were why here... what would the new church have to offer – but as the family-orientated religion is a total way of life (although very much Christian), that would need another column to explain theological beliefs, to give it justice.
The first modern missionaries had come to Southport in the late 1950s and by the early 1960s there were around 130 Mormons, including those practising, visiting people from door-to-door or on request, working out of the Temperance Institute, London Street.
Once the town proved that it had a strong nucleus a request to build a church here, the Church Building Department took over – as it was doing all over the world. The Mormon building plan at that time was staggering, with every single day, in some part of the world, a new church being dedicated, including Liverpool, Manchester and Wigan, amongst others in the north-west, from small towns to large cities, wealthy towns, industrial areas and farming communities – and seaside resorts.
Much of the building of the Southport Chapel was made possible due to voluntary labour. In charge of the exciting project was Clifford Johnson, from Ohio – who had already built four churches in the States. Helping him were four Mormon men and, apart from the brickwork, and electrical and plumbing installations, this small team did everything itself.
Accidents can of course happen with large projects – especially before new health and safety rules were introduced – and the Southport Chapel project was delayed after the main man, Elder Cliff Johnson, fell twice, the second time from off the roof breaking his back in two places.
National and regional newspaper headlines had previously announced another Mormon Missionary’s double fall working on church roof in August 1963, when 18-year-old David Crouses fell and was lucky to survive.
With a deadline to keep, the volunteers worked on the site from six in the morning, before their normal work, and then back again after work.
The eventual completion of the Southport Chapel 55 years ago was, quite simply, a modern-day miracle, a creation brought about through the hard work, determination, vision and faith of a small group of ‘Saints’, humble volunteers (and some valuable professional assistance) who set upon making provision for the future growth of the Church in the Southport district.
Voluntary labour in excess of 20,000 hours had contributed over a threeyear period, to enable the impressive ‘dream’ structure to be completed.
It was certainly a job extremely well done, and Southport’s leading architectural historian, Cedric Greenwood, explained that the Mormon Church ‘is the only contemporary style building in Southport worthy of architectural note.’
Perched majestically on the busy Preston New Road (A565), in front of Rathmore Crescent, the main features are the steep-pitched roof and dormer gables – with its prominent overhanging eaves slanting forward – the expansive veranda-style portico and, the detached tower with its spear-like spire. Writing his excellent series on architecture in the Southport Visiter (September 1970) Cedric said the
Mormon Church ‘incorporates a pleasing pinewood chapel, a theatrecum-indoor sports room, numerous Sunday school rooms and meeting rooms, and a baptismal font like a tiny swimming bath.’
The chapel was indeed created to provide spacious accommodation for the Southport Ward, with the capacity for two or three times the then membership, and room to build additional facilities when required, with a challenge to redouble its efforts ‘to share the joyous message of the Gospel … to go forth with courage to bring all of Heavenly Father’s children to follow Jesus Christ.’
The building of the Church culminating with an official Dedication Service on Monday, February 20, 1967; the closing hymn was Come, Come Ye Saints, and indeed they did, as membership figures rose sharply to 180, and that was just the beginning.
Perhaps surprisingly, there have been Latter-Day Saints (‘Mormons’) in Southport since the 1830s; had the prophesising President looked back to 1837 he would have found that there was in fact a branch in the seaside resort, with several Southport members attended only the second general conference of the Church in this country, on April 8 1838 in The Cockpit in Preston.
Church membership then grew from those seven original and committed family members in Lancashire to nearly 270,000 in 1900, and to an international membership today of over 12 million.
Active membership of the Church in Southport has occurred for the last 60 years, with the archives showing a presence of an admittedly small group of Southport Saints in the 1930s – faith preserved for well over a century!
Then one record, in 1953, shows the small Southport branch held its meetings in Forester’s Hall in Wright Street (named after the builder and Improvement Commissioner Richard Wright), conducted by Brother Cubbon, of Liverpool; he (the only priesthood member) opened with prayer before administering Sacrament, and there was also a second speaker, but un-named.
The Sunday meetings were held in this small hall rented from the Foresters Organisation, which appears to have been part of the Ancient Order of Foresters, which formed nationally in 1834, now called the Foresters Friendly Society which can boast over 75,000 members.
As the main function of the Foresters’ Hall building was that of a social club, the room had to be cleared every Saturday night prior to the Saints meetings which meant Brother Charlie Fleming, and his wife had to clean the premises, always littered with