On the Heritage Walk Trail - Sue Rhodes
Some weeks ago a newly placed plaque appeared on the edge of the DCF property - location 15 of the Darlington Heritage Walk Trail. We thank the Darlington History Group for this beautiful plaque of our humble older building, the ‘Presbyterian Church 1927’, and for its detailed inscription and photo.
The plaque photo has generated considerable discussion - whose cars are they? Maybe Mr Vickers’ (tennis coach for so many years), ‘Pa’ Lindsay’s’ (retired sea captain, author, painter)? Stan and Jean Williams’? Mr and Mrs Kilmaster’s, Bill and Joy Morgan’s? Who is the girl at the tree?… and some guesses by my parents Ron and Dorothy Mitchell who started attending in the late 1950s.
It has also generated memories - the long-gone weatherboard building visible in the top LHS with a toilet either end and Sunday school room in the middle where several of us still attending taught or learnt at Sunday School. My memories begin in the mid-1960s when for one or two early summers sweet pea perfume wafted in through windows from a massive patch someone had planted nearby.
These were the days of ladies’ hats and gloves, and the bare gravel carpark area where Little Nook Café now stands was the parent-free zone where kids horsed around (allegedly a broken arm or two) and climbed those trees with pods containing itchy powder. A vivid memory from maybe 45 years ago was a remarkable non-sermon one Easter by then Darlington resident Dr Noel Vose. There was no reading but he told the story: the 4 gospel accounts of Christ’s death and resurrection synthesised into a compelling, nail-biting narrative.
So many years, so much change … but we still have the mainstream interdenominational, Christ-centred culture of the 1927 Presbyterian combined congregation (Presbyterian, Methodist, Congregational, Baptist and others) that became Darlington United Church and then Darlington Christian Fellowship. Held together all these years by those things we regard as of first importance (1 Corinthians 15) and where people from a range of Christian ‘flavours’ have found a church home to worship and fellowship together.
Sue Rhodes
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