A SPECIAL church service to celebrate 50 years since the ordination of a dale vicar is being held at Holy Trinity Church in Startforth.
Revd Peter Lind-Jackson, who was vicar at St Mary’s Parish Church in Barnard Castle, for 18 years until his retirement in 2000, is leading the golden jubilee service on Sunday, September 29, at 10.30am.
Many readers will remember Revd Lind-Jackson, who now lives in Startforth with his wife Shirley, for spearheading the massive fundraising campaign to replace the roof on St Mary’s. It was in a dire condition when he came to the area in 1982.
Mr Jackson was ordained at Hereford Cathedral, not far from where he was born in Ross-on-Wye, in 1969. However, his journey to the church was not straightforward and chose to pursue a career in
accountancy after leaving school.
He says this career “didn’t fit” and after a three-year stint in the Army he settled into working for a company, selling insurance in the city. But it was his his wife who brought him into the church.
He said: “She was more of a church-goer than I was and she suggested instead of going to play golf on a Sunday I should visit church. So I did and I remembered I’d always enjoyed it as a child – the psalms and hymns.
“We were living at Bardsley, near Leeds, at the time and the vicar there really inspired me and before long I was attending a selection convention with the church.”
He was invited to complete a theology degree at Leeds University and then embarked on a further 18 months of theological training before he was ordained.
Mr Jackson said: “It was just by chance I went to be a curate at Hereford and was ordained at the cathedral, not far from where I was born.”
His work as a curate in Hereford saw him look after a flock of 25,000 parishioners including members of the SAS regiment, whose barracks fell within his parish.
After ordination, he took on a nearby parish of Burghill and Tillington, just to the north of Hereford where he remained for 11 years, before moving to Barnard Castle.
He said: “I was rather naive when I first looked at the church when I was deciding whether to take on the parish. I asked if there were any problems and they said ‘the roof leaks a bit’.”
It was only when he arrived and took a look at the reports on the structure did he get a full understanding of the extent of the problem.
The roof did in fact leak a bit -mainly due to the fact the ancient timbers had wet rot, dry rot and a colony of black watch beetles eating away at them. He added: “The first year in the parish was spent writing letters to charities asking for money.”
He led a huge campaign that raised £250,000. The church was closed for six months while the entire structure of the roof was lifted, using industrial screw jacks, so workmen could replace the rotten timbers with new oak beams.
During his time as vicar at St Mary’s, Mr Lind-Jackson says he liked to walk everywhere and on his retirement, he worked out the average mileage he had accumulated going to and from the vicarage in Newgate to the church.
He said: “I totted it up one day on the back of an envelope and even accounting for holidays I reckoned in the 18 years I’d walked more than 7,000 miles on Newgate, but that’s not including the walking I did up and down the market on a Wednesday getting out and meeting parishioners. But it kept me fit.”
Although he had always intended to return to Herefordshire after retirement he and his wife have remained in the area and now reside in Startforth.
For the past ten months he has been assisting with services at Holy Trinity when needed.
The golden jubilee service will be led by Revd Peter Fisher from Bowes.
