Teacher Eileen’s farewell to Sunday school after 50 years
9:14am Wednesday 7th September 2011 in Your Town
FOR 50 years, Eileen Hodgin has been entertaining and educating children at a Sunday school in Bromley Cross.
She started as a teenager and has been volunteering at Birtenshaw Methodist Church ever since.
Now, at the age of 64, the grandmother is retiring from the classroom to make way for a younger generation.
She said: “I just feel, when you’ve been doing something for 50 years, you’re probably looking at things the same way, maybe we need someone younger with fresh ideas.
“I’ve always loved it. It’s been interesting and the children have been wonderful, but it’s time to make room for someone else.”
On Sunday, church members presented flowers and gifts to Mrs Hodgin to thank her for her services.
Having attended the school since the age of two, she became a Sunday school teacher at the age of 14.
There were hundreds of children attending each week, and in 1971 the school moved into a bigger building in Darwen Road.
In the 1980s, Mrs Hodgin set up a school for children aged 16 and over, which was a first for the church.
The idea was to keep the older children interested by involving them in debates and giving talks about themselves.
Unfortunately, the number of children dwindled over the years and the group ended.
There are now only seven or eight children who regularly attend.
Mrs Hodgin said: “A lot of churches are suffering from a lack of young people, but we still have some children and I hope we’ll get more. When I started, it was somewhere families met and came to socialise because there was nothing else to do. Now children have football and dancing on Sunday mornings, and families tend to get in their cars and go somewhere for the day, whereas most didn’t have cars in those days.”
Mrs Hodgin, who is married to Cedric, retired from her job as a pharmacy technician at the Royal Bolton Hospital at the age of 60.
She has two children and one granddaughter. Four generations of her family have married at Birtenshaw Methodist Church.
She is now a volunteer welcomer at the church on Sundays.
