Messages received
Message received from Shetland (Elisabeth Nicolson)
Elisabeth Nicolson (née Booth) (Lis Nicolson) e-mailed us from Shetland, Britain's northernmost Meeting for Worship
I recently had a visit from Peter Hoyle, formerly treasurer for Crawshawbooth Meeting. I live in Britain's northernmost island, Unst, in Shetland, where there are 15 inhabitied islands. Once a year, we hold Britain's northernmost Quaker Meeting for Worship in my sitting-room. This event is preceded by coffee and cakes, and followed by a 'bring & share' lunch in my kitchen, as many Friends travel more than 60 miles, and over two ferries, just to get here!
Our family worshipped at Crawshawbooth Meeting House for the eleven years that we lived on the Haslingden Old Road, No 275, Long Mynd.
My parents were Bessie Nicolson, née Tyldesley (3 June 1919 - 22 August 1985) and Ernest Booth (12 August 1911 - 30 April 1986). Their ashes were buried there, under the window at the right of the door.
I have, somewhere in this house, something about the history of the Crawshawbooth Meeting house, published in the 1973 (???) edition of the Rossendale Anthology.
My husband, James Barron Smith Nicolson, died recently - 2 January 2006, and I am off to Faroe and Iceland next week. We are youth hostelling, and will tell you how we get on when we come home again.
I did know Jack Trickett quite well. He also taught my youngest brother, Steven William Booth, born 26 August 1959, woodwork at Bacup and Rawtenstall Grammar School. But I only lived 7 months or so in Rawtenstall, working as a midwife at Rossendale General Hospital. That dates me!! There has been no maternity unit there for years. Women aren't having babies the way they used to, of course!!
Perhaps the quaintest thing I know about Crawshawbooth Meeting is the Hay Fund, to pay for hay for members' horses, when Friends attended Meetings. I understand that it is used for petrol funds nowadays! I will do some phoning round and let you know!
