Couple celebrate lifetime church link

It will be music to the ears of Peter Hickman and his wife Margot when the 17th Century organ at St John's in the Square plays the opening bars of the thanksgiving service marking the 250th anniversary of the Wolverhampton church.

The 77-year-olds were married there 49 years ago and have appeared to be wed to the towering Georgian masterpiece ever since.

St John's in the Square in Snow Hill was built in 1758 to cope with the growing demand in the burgeoning town for a place to worship and is celebrating its milestone anniversary with a special service on April 11.

Today it has one of the city's most thriving congregations as well as being a popular concert venue.

To coincide with the anniversary, the churchyard is to be refurbished to cement its future for years to come.

Margot had worshipped at St John's for almost 20 years before walking down the aisle. The pair have been devoted members of the congregation ever since.

"The church is an architectural gem with marvellous acoustics," said father-of-three Peter, from Bradmore.

"The sound of the organ is particularly uplifting."

The organ had been in London for some time and spent 60 years in Dublin before finding a home at St John's more than a decade after the church was built. It is still as good as new following regular renovation every 25 years, with the latest revamp costing £80,000 four years ago.

St John's is one of only a few Georgian buildings in the area still surviving in their original condition.

It once held 1,500 worshippers but the distinctive period pews upstairs are seldom used now.

Stained glass took the place of the previously clear windows between 1880 and 1910. One installed in 1901 commemorates the loss during the Boar War of William Garfield, a 30-year-old member of the family that ran a bakery in Worcester Street for many years.

Two side chapels were added to the church in 1928.

One of these, now the vestry, is dedicated to Thomas Kilby the final headmaster of St John's Day School, which closed at the outbreak of the Second World War because it had no air raid shelter.

St John's has been dubbed the "resurrection" church because of its ability to come back from the brink. It was almost burned to the ground in a fire a year after being built and has overcome a string of calamities since.

A subscription list hanging on the walls of the stairs of the church leading to the upper floor reveals how the great and the good were donating up to £20-a-head to the cause in 1869.

Among the congregation for the thanksgiving service on April 11 will be the Duke of Gloucester. Rector of Wolverhampton Rev David Frith said: "It will reunite many who have been involved in the life of the church over many years as well as the many organisations we work with today – musical groups, training providers and the council.

"We shall also be telling the story of St John's. It is a wonderful story of how the church has continually gone out to the people of Wolverhampton to respond to their needs."

The church was known as St John's until lifetime church member Len Turvey suggested in the 1980s "in the Square" be added to avoid confusion with other churches of the same name.

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