150th anniversary celebrations with Victorian theme

On Sunday 23rd June the Stoke Gifford community joined St. Michael s Church and St. Michael s Primary School at an open air service on the village green to celebrate 150 years of serving the local community.

The service had the old primary school building as the backdrop and was introduced by Rev. Simon Jones, vicar of St Michael s Church, dressed as a Victorian vicar complete with top hat and ‘mutton chops . Mark Freeman, headmaster at St Michael s School, was dressed as a Victorian headmaster wearing an academic gown and carrying a cane (photo top right).

Many current pupils got into the Victorian spirit by coming as schoolchildren would have dressed 150 years ago. The hymns included Victorian favourites Praise my Soul the King of Heaven and Guide me O Thou Great Jehovah.

In the stories told by former pupils who used to attend the old school, one mentioned how she used to walk across open fields to get to school. Another remembered how the Old Barns site behind the Old School Rooms used to be a functioning farm with cows being herded to and fro twice a day.

St Michael s School was built on the village green in 1863, during the reign of Queen Victoria, and served as Stoke Gifford s primary school for 125 years. It moved to new premises on Ratcliffe Drive in 1988 and the old school building reverted back to St Michael s Church.

In the last 25 years the Old School Rooms have been expanded and upgraded to include offices and community meeting spaces and, in 2004, the church opened a coffee shop (9.30-4pm Monday to Friday and 10-12pm on Saturdays for coffee, cakes and lunches.)

Today around 1000 people a week use the building. Work has now started on transforming the derelict Old Barns site behind the old school building into a new church and community centre as part of the Heart of the Community project. The whole complex will be linked to the Old School Rooms and the centrepiece will be a 600 seat auditorium.

Mr Freeman said he was looking forward to the time when the centre would be built and they could meet together again as a whole school – something they don t have the space for at the moment.

During the service Si Jones spoke about the parable of the Good Samaritan, about what it meant for the church today to reach out and serve everybody in the local community.

Speaking of the building plans he said, “It’s not so much about a community building, but about continuing to build community together.

“The Heart of the Community project will enable us to provide more youth activities, more events for the elderly, more support for the disadvantaged, more facilities to share with local schools and charities and a bigger meeting space for our growing church and community.”

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