Praise be for the welcome given to a community

Richard Cadbury was living at Lower Wick House, off Malvern Road, at the time he donated about £1,500 for the building of the Mission Hall and its school room.

He had already set up the Welcome Mission in Friar Street, and saw the need for a similar place of worship on the city's Westside, particularly to serve Coventry Avenue, Whites Road, Sharp Road and Brown Street.

These roads were lined with houses, then recently-built by the city council to take families from Worcester's slum clearance areas.

What was originally called the Bromwich Road Interdenominational Evangelical Mission was officially opened by Richard Cadbury and other members of his family on May 2, 1932.

He circulated a letter to all houses in the surrounding area explaining:

"Dear Friend, I am glad that you have been able to get comfort and fresh air in the Bromwich Road Settlement. But after a fairly long life, with a somewhat varied experience at home and abroad, I am convinced that neither locality nor comfort alone can satisfy man's deepest needs. Nothing short of fellowship with God will ever meet his yearnings, and he will never find peace of heart without it.

"I am anxious to make the practice of worship possible for those who are too far away to attend the regular places of worship, and have therefore built the Bromwich Road Mission in the hope that it may help meet this need.

"The Mission is not intended to form a new sect, and it is hoped it will not take members of other Churches away from their own place of worship."

To this end, Richard Cadbury stipulated that there would be only Sunday evening services at the Mission, enabling people to go, if they wished, to their own churches for morning services.

Remarkably, only two people - a father and son - have been in charge of the Bromwich Road Mission throughout its 70 years to date!

The late Wilfred Lawson Jones, known to all as "W L" was pastor from the day it opened until his death in 1970, and, ever since then, his son Ken has been chairman of the Bromwich Road Mission. Wilfred's other child, Violet (Mrs Gardiner) is still also one of the Mission's organists.

Wilfred Jones had been a miner in his native South Wales but was among the thousands who came out on strike in the 1920s, leaving him unemployed for a long time. He eventually moved to Worcester and married Ethel Kendrick, whose family were builders based at Droitwich. He was given a labouring job by them at Worcester.

But Wilfred, a Methodist, had been a champion boy singer in Wales and was an accredited Methodist lay preacher. As a result, he was soon in demand at Worcester for preaching and singing assignments.

"He had a lovely tenor voice and did a lot of solo and oratorio singing in the city and county," says son Ken.

It was not long either before Wilfred came to the attention of Richard Cadbury, who invited him to be Pastor of his Welcome Mission in Friar Street, which he did for about three years.

Then came Richard Cadbury's decision to build the Bromwich Road Mission, and his first choice for pastor was Wilfred Jones, who readily accepted the appointment. Until then, Wilfred, his wife and their children had been living in Barbourne, but they moved to Bromwich Road where Richard Cadbury had also had built four houses and a shop alongside the new Mission.

One house was for the pastor's family while the others were for Richard Cadbury's gardener, the caretaker, and for Frank Ansell, who was his chauffeur and then his daughter's for a total of 60 years.

The deeds of the nearby shop specifically barred the sale of alcohol - Richard Cadbury was a leading figure in the Temperance Movement.

The Mission's first organist was Margaret Johnson, who started at 16 and remained for more than 40 years.

Ken Jones, seven at the time, has vague recollections of the 1932 official opening of the Mission, as does his sister Violet. A special week of events afterwards included rallies where the preacher was a "converted" horse race jockey, Jimmy Bryant, billed as "Evangelist of the Open Air Mission."

Alas, Richard Cadbury died only three years after building the Bromwich Road Mission. Ken Jones recalls: "On his deathbed, Mr Cadbury implored my father to stay permanently as pastor of the Mission, and my father gave his promise that he would. True to his word, father was always to remain as the Mission's Pastor until his own dying day 35 years later."

Wilfred Jones wrote down some memories of his early days:

"The people of the district were almost all from the slums. It was hard work, and I would return home from visiting feeling very tired, but my wife would say: 'Never mind, dear, it's the Lord's work.' "

He vividly recalls that back in the 1930s, the locality was then "a bit rough," and Fridays and Saturdays were fight nights in the Coventry Avenue district.

"But instead of calling the police, people would fetch out my father to break up the fights and separate the combatants. He would sometimes be out half the night.

"He was a lovely man and was very well -liked and respected," stresses Ken, who fondly recalls that Richard Cadbury's two daughters Evelyn and "Beth" and son David all taught in the large Sunday school at the Bromwich Road Mission, while Mrs Cadbury ran the Ladies' Meeting.

From the start of the 1930s too, Wilfred Jones was also Worcester area Evangelist of the Christian Colportage Association, an additional challenging role which involved travelling round to visit homes in all the villages surrounding the city.

"He would go to 80 villages, getting round them in about three months so that people received four visits a year from him."

In representing an organisation whose motto was "A Bible in every home," he obviously sold bibles, together with other Christian literature, and also postcards, writing paper and envelopes which people had difficulty getting out in the country.

Wilfred first did his village rounds on a bicycle, but Richard Cadbury then bought him a motorcycle and sidecar from which he graduated to an Austin Seven and then to a series of other cars.

Also, from time-to-time, Wilfred was on duty at the Christian Colportage Association's stall in the City Market Hall off High Street. Today, the organisation is known as the Home Evangelism Association.

Though originally built to serve the Bromwich Road "settlement," the Westside Mission, under Wilfred Jones's caring leadership, continually expanded the area from which it drew its worshippers and became a vibrant centre of community activities.

Alas, Wilfred suffered throat cancer in his 70s and had to have his voice box removed. This meant the end of his preaching and most other duties but he still retained the post of pastor until his death in 1980 at the age of 82.

Son Ken, who had always worked alongside his father, stepped into Wilfred's place during his final few years and was afterwards appointed chairman of the Mission, a position he still holds three decades later. It puts him at the head of the executive committee, composed of representatives of all the Mission's organisations, and he is also chairman of the trust which owns the Mission.

He is proud and delighted that, 70 years on, the Bromwich Road church is very much alive and still serving the community as its founder, Richard Cadbury intended.

He is particularly thankful for the faithful support and hard work of wife Gwyneth and family and Mission members from its early years, who are still serving it today, including Mr and Mrs Ralph Gardiner, Mrs Doreen Milton, Miss Olive Jenkins, and his sister Mrs Violet Gardiner.

The Mission has 80 regular members to its Sunday morning and evening services which are led, in turn, by Ken, who is a Methodist local preacher, Mrs Christine Holzapfel, a C of E lay reader, other members and visiting clergy and lay preachers.

Children and young people are actively involved in the church. On Sunday mornings there is a two-hour session for Treasure Seekers (the three-plus age group), while, on three nights a week, there are "Campaigner" meetings for young people up to 18-plus. There is also a lively Youth Club, and other weekly activities include a bible study group and the Fellowship where all ages meet to hear interesting speakers.

A midday meal is provided on Mondays for members of the Westside "Live at Home" scheme, organised by the Westside churches in support of the elderly in their own homes and supervised by Mrs Holzapfel.

The Mission is one of the inter-denominational Westside Liaison Group of churches whose members unite to worship and study together.

The Mission buildings are also used for many other activities by the local community. For instance, it is host to a pre-school group, "Sunbeams" every weekday morning.

Ken stresses: "We are still a family friendly church welcoming all ages to join in our Sunday services and many varied weekday activities."

The Bromwich Road buildings have been much improved and updated since the days of Richard Cadbury when there were two buildings on the site, divided by a fence, one for the Sunday School and the other for adults to worship in.

The Sunday School was extended by a stage and new lavatories to celebrate the Mission's 25th anniversary in 1957, while the original two buildings were joined together with the provision of a lounge, new kitchen and a lavatory for the disabled at the time of the church's Golden Jubilee in 1982. All this building work was done on a self-help basis by members of the congregation providing the expertise and labour.

Overall, the Mission is now able to offer a church with 120 chairs, a hall with stage, a lounge, meeting rooms, two kitchens, toilets, a playing field and a good-sized car park. The 70th anniversary is likely to be marked in a practical way by further extensions.

For its celebration year too, the Mission is staging a series of events. There is to be a week of Special Praise Services from Saturday, May 12 to Friday, May 19; a picnic on Saturday, June 15; It's a Knockout on Saturday, July 13; a Flower Festival on Saturday amd Sunday, September 14 and 15; a barn dance on Saturday October 5; harvest services on Sunday, October 6; an old time music hall on Saturday, November 30, and a candlelit carol service in December.

"We welcome all who have happy memories of the Bromwich Road Mission to join in our celebrations with us," says Ken Jones.