At Your Service: Inside the inside-out church

JUST because the name of Blackhall is thought to have come from "black holes" - a reference to the caves when seen from the North Sea - it shouldn't be assumed that it had nowt.

The beach, the Pleasure Gardens, the Temperance Hotel and the inlets were once (as they say) wick wi' folk.

In April, 1914, it was reported, "a good share of holiday makers filled two trains which arrived at Blackhall Rocks station while the Hartlepool Boys Brigade Band played plenty of good tunes".

Thirteen years later, 400 children and 100 adults from the George Charlton Juvenile Tent of Rechabbites pitched up at Blackhall for their annual outing, holding "sports and other games" while each child was given a bun and a slice of spice bread.

"A very enjoyable afternoon was spent by everyone," reported the Hartlepool Mail, though perhaps it went without saying.

Blackhall Rocks was also notorious for its number of shipwrecks and, like one or two of those unfortunate craft, the locals had long sailed a bit close to the wind.

As early as 1432, the Pope is said to have threatened with excommunication all those who failed to return goods looted from a ship belonging to the Hanseatic League.

Subsequent smuggling activities were curtailed by the formation of a rocket brigade, though whether a Blackhall rocket had the same force as a Papal broadside has never been made clear.

We digress, at any rate, though strictly speaking it may not be possible to digress from a subject which wasn't touched upon in the first place.

Today's column is about the 75th anniversary and flower festival of St Andrew's, Blackhall, sometimes known as the inside-out church and with quite a yarn of its own.

Blackhall's between Hartlepool and Peterlee, dominated for most of the 20th century by a colliery, said when full production began in 1913 to be the safest and most modern in Britain.

The modernity, records one of the Blackhall Local History Group's splendid publications, didn't extend to the "totally unimaginative" colliery housing nor, presumably, to the street names. They were First to Umpteenth, as usual.

The pit, appropriately to blacken the name of the once golden beaches, was also one of the wettest. An information board on the cliff path records the perhaps apocryphal story of the two Blackhall miners who perchance met up again at Dunkirk - one pulling the other onto a boat.

"Why yer bugger," he said, "aa'm workin' in watter again."

The first Anglican services, led by the foreman blacksmith, had been in a wooden hut which during the week was a colliery office and which finally became a butcher's.

The second was corrugated iron, the familiar tin church, given by the Horden Colliery Company which owned Blackhall pit and twice enlarged. It's now the RAFA Club. Then came St Andrew's, and it came on the back of a lorry.

It had been built around 1885 as St Paul's, near Stockton railway station. When the population moved, the church became redundant. The canny folk of Blackhall bought it for £300, the matter of getting it the 15 miles from Stockton a rather greater problem. The solution, said the Hartlepool Mail at the time, was "boldly conceived."

It was dismantled brick by brick, nearly 500 tons of material transported in three lorries a day, each carrying three tons. Work cost £4,300, the colliery bosses providing both the land and "helped financially in a substantial manner."

The other problem that St Paul's had become pretty mucky during 40 years in industrial Stockton. Blackhall resolved the problem by turning its face to the wall, rebuilding everything inwards.

It's worn well, internally light and very attractive, the second hand rose yet further beautified by the flower festival.

"People walk in and ask if we've just decorated. We haven't for ages, it's just so lovely," said Betty Mudd, who'd been at the dedication service 75 years earlier and had never left Blackhall or St Andrew's.

Gladys Ord, 83, like her friend, had also been at the inaugural service, watched the church going up. The reredos was erected in 1947 in memory of her grandfather.

Gladys became a teacher, married the manager of the Blackhall branch of Station Town Co-op, never left, either. "It used to be a wonderful little spot, our own denes and everything. There used to be a wonderful community spirit in Blackhall."

Betty thought similarly. "Oh it's still a nice little village," she said, "only sometimes it's nicer than others."

All agreed, of course, that the church was nowhere as full as it used to be and that Blackhall's youngsters might sometimes (shall we say) better direct their energies.

"Things that attract people to church don't seem relevant on the streets of Blackhall," said George Liddle, the vicar, previously at Evenwood.

Mr Liddle led the service, the Archdeacon of Durham preached. "He's the Venerable Summat," someone whispered before the service to her companion. Stephen Conway has probably been called worse.

A healthy congregation included Blackhall's Methodists and Roman Catholics, too. "The important thing is that we're all Christians," said Mr Liddle.

We sang good old hymns like Blessed Assurance and Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory, appreciated the Archdeacon's sermon about wearing the heart of Jesus on the outside, too, retired for the traditional knees up in the church hall.

"It's been a wonderful weekend," said Gladys Ord, and that's the inside-out story, anyway.

*Details of publications by the Blackhall Local History Group, from which shamelessly today's column has cribbed, can be had from Alan Roxburgh, 2 West Street, Blackhall, Co Durham TS27 4LJ. Usual Sunday service at St Andrew's is at 9 30am. The Rev George Liddle is on 0191-586-4202.