Category: About Us

Eileen Lawrence, Secretary, Mansfield &DMVC 2014 – present day

I’m not sure that the usual title, “I love to sing” applies to me, but I certainly love to hear the men sing! I have been to virtually every concert, which the choir has been part of, ever since my husband, Howard, joined in 1997. Only the occasional work commitment and holidays have kept me away. Since becoming Secretary in April 2014 I have also attended all of the Tuesday practices so I think that I know many of the pieces as well as some of the men. My husband is surprised, at times, when he is singing the first tenor part at home that I join in as a baritone. (I sit next to them at practices!) This article follows on from the one which was posted about my husband on the website last month.
As a child I lived in Huthwaite where I learned to play the piano from the age of seven until my mid-teens, reaching Grade 7 in piano exams. I was lucky that my music teacher was keen on encouraging her pupils to perform in public so from an early age I took part in many local concerts performing, usually, for ‘seniors’ groups as well as competing in piano sections of local music festivals in solo classes and also duets with my friend, Glenis. It was also usual for me to play for Sunday School etc. at the Sutton Road Methodist Church where I had grown up and was a member. When I was about sixteen, Mr Annabel, who was the chemistry teacher at Brunts Grammar School where I was a pupil, became organist at chapel and he offered to teach Glenis and me to play the organ. There was a lovely pipe organ in the church and I always felt that this was a great privilege. The magnificent sound was so uplifting. I must have made reasonable progress because I was allowed to play regularly for morning service and, at times, played for funerals though they never let me loose on weddings!

Eileen on her 21st birthday

I met Howard, while I was still at school, in 1962 when he was brought to a meeting at our church by the, then, minister who was actually in charge of The Hill Church at Kirkby, where Howard went, as well as my own. We had a fairly long courtship as, from 1964 to 1967, I went away to Dudley to train as a teacher. Shortly after qualifying as a primary school teacher we got married and three weeks later I began my career at Forest Glade Junior School in Sutton. Through my 38 years in the profession I taught mainly junior age children but I did have two years with infants once! Whilst primary teachers cover all subjects my first love was always maths. In my third year I was given class 4B (top juniors) and, when on exploring the cupboard in my new classroom to find what resources were available, found a complete set of maths text books which included sovereigns. Stupidly I suggested to the head teacher that we could disposed of them. He was not amused! (This was just before decimal currency came in!) I spent all of my career in the Sutton area progressing through the ranks and during that time played the piano for all kinds of school events and taught many children to play the recorder, which I have always felt is a great skill for them to have as it teaches them to read music, making it easier to move onto higher things musically.

Graham and Richard aged 7 and 2

In December 1968 our first son, Graham, was born followed nearly five years later by Richard. We had a lovely time with our sons taking them all over the country by train and a little later, also by train, to Europe mainly to the Alps, where they shared our enthusiasm for the mountains and also developed our love of all types of railways, which is still with them both today. We also had a touring caravan for some years and that allowed us to travel widely in the UK too. I was lucky that, as a teacher, the children spent their primary years at the school where I taught at that time but I did ensure that they were never in my class! When the boys and I were on holiday, but Howard was at work, we also used to go out widely by rail. Howard and I still have a touring caravan which we use extensively and Richard and his partner, Jo, have also caught the bug and are always keen to borrow it.
Even though we settled in Skegby when we married, we still had links with our former churches and in the early 70’s I received a surprise and a great compliment by being asked to conduct the Annual Sunday School Anniversary in Huthwaite. At that time there were two Methodist Churches in Huthwaite and, once a year, the Sunday Schools combined to take part in the event. It was a highlight of the churches’ year with a large stage built to accommodate considerable numbers of children who were backed by the two four-part adult church choirs. I had never done anything of the sort before, so it was very daunting. For the first few years it was a traditional Sunday school anniversary of poems, readings and songs which was not too difficult for me but eventually they had the idea of moving on to performing religious musicals. The first one they chose was Joseph and His Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat and I was scared stiff! It seemed to go OK and in subsequent years we performed a variety of other musicals, often composed by Roger Jones, including ‘David’, ‘A Grain of Mustard Seed’ and ‘Greater Than Gold’. You do not know what you can do until you try it! None of them were as daunting as Joseph! Incidentally, that was the first time that Howard had ever performed a solo, singing the Baker in Joseph.
Whatever Howard and I have got involved in throughout our 50 something years together we have always joined in and supported each other even though he does get fed up of me at times and tells me that I should do less!!
In the late 1970’s I became a school governor at the school where I worked at that time and I stayed with them for over 40 years even after I left the school. I also became a governor of Forest Glade School about 15 years ago and I still do that. I have chaired the Finance committees for a long time and am often involved in interviews and head teacher’s appraisal making it an extremely interesting but time-consuming thing to do. About 3 years ago I joined our local doctor’s surgery patient’s panel and I am now secretary of that group. That is also very interesting.

The final thing about myself is that I love to plan holidays. Very rarely have we used package tours – only for long haul.
I can spend hours sorting out hotels, camp sites (we prefer the maximum 5 van sites), ferries, trains, routes and so on. At times Howard thinks I have got lost in the computer!
My story with the Choir
For over ten years I attended Choir events and concerts and got to know quite a few people but, sometimes, ladies were at concerts, taken by their husbands or partners very early, but who then had to leave them to have a preconcert practice with other choirs or just a warm up, which left the ladies in a fairly empty building not knowing anyone and this concerned me.
Talking to my sister, who lives in Sheffield, she told me that she and her husband had joined the Worrell Male Voice Choir Supporters’ Group. I asked her why they had joined and she told me that it was just because her husband played golf with some of the choir members so it was nice to attend concerts and social events. This set me thinking.

In July 2012 many of the choir members went on a choir holiday to Wales staying in Llandudno and Tenby and doing a number of concerts, one by ourselves and three with other MVCs. During the stay in Llandudno Howard and I shared a table for meals with Marilyn and Geoff Mansfield. Over breakfast one morning we discussed the Worrell Choir and their supporters’ group and started to consider whether this would be good for Mansfield. We all concluded that it would help the choir families and friends to get to know each other by holding more social events and could also help to generate funds for the choir. Geoff put the idea to the committee who agreed and an invitation was sent out to all ladies who we thought might be interested to attend a preliminary meeting. There was a good turn out and about 15 ladies agreed to join. I became the first Chairman and we started meeting regularly, discussing ideas and planning events. These ladies try very hard to make sure that newcomers are always welcome at anything in which the choir is involved and we have had many very successful events through the years raising a considerable sum of money. Another spin off of the many social gathering has been that the choir members have got to know each other better because there is time to move around and chat whereas, previously many of them only really knew their own section.

Early in 2014, prior to the AGM, Geoff Mansfield, the then Chairman of the Choir, told me that the Choir Secretary was planning on retiring at the April AGM and, to my surprise, asked me to consider standing for the role. After some thought I agreed and was elected in April 2014. It has been a pleasure to serve with this committee as it has always been well organised, efficient and amiable, greatly helped by the friendship and enthusiasm of our music team, MD Ian Grice and accompanist, Margaret Ball. I have really enjoyed many tasks as secretary: I like designing and making posters and tickets for concerts, compiling and producing newsletter for members and supporters, receiving unexpected letter and phone calls as well as being involved in all that is going on as well as the more every day ‘stuff’. You never know what to expect.

Eileen at home on the sofa

When I became Choir Secretary, I stood down as Supporters’ Group Chairman and was succeeded by Sue Bartle and later Marilyn Mansfield, who have led the group from strength to strength. It has been good to see a variety of new members joining the Choir and the Supporters’ Group and I feel the whole atmosphere of the wider Choir family has really benefitted from getting to know each other better. I would like to say thank you to all of the choristers for making me welcome in their male domain although there are now more ladies at practices, as the Supporters’ Group provide them with refreshments on a rota basis! I never get tired of hearing the Choir sing and am fascinated to witness how new four-part songs develop, often quite quickly.

Finally, I wish our lovely choir family every success for the future.

Eileen & Howard celebrating their 50th Wedding Anniversary with family and friends.
The Choir and several soloists performed at the event and the ladies of the
Supporters’ Group provided a wonderful array of desserts! The family and close friends really enjoyed the event. Thanks go to the choir for their input.

Early days
I was born in August 1942 in Kirkby – in- Ashfield opposite The Hill Methodist Church where my parents were members and my father was caretaker. So, from a young age, I was brought up with singing the wonderful Methodist hymns and joining in the Sunday School Anniversaries and other activities. As a young man there was a youth fellowship group at The Hill who met on a Thursday evening. We often had speakers but we always finished by singing a couple of hymns. The pianist for us was a young lady by the name of Betty Grice. Once most people had gone a group of us would gather round the piano and my favourite phrase was “Come on Betty, let us just do one more!” Which meant ‘several’ and eventually Betty would say “Have you seen the time?” Soon afterwards, of course Betty and her husband, John had a lovely little boy called Ian! (Ian Grice is the choir MD).

My father was a good pianist who encouraged me to learn to play the piano which was invaluable in later life for the skill of reading music. I was also a member of my secondary school choir with which I took part in various festivals and concerts. My time with the choir was abruptly terminated by the music teacher as, instead of attending a practice promptly one day, I stayed behind in woodwork to complete the project I was working on. I was told if I preferred woodwork I was not to come back to the choir! On leaving school I really wanted to join the railway but my father insisted that the working hours were long, could involve lodging away from home and therefore his answer to me wanting to do that was a firm “NO!” Instead, my father got me an apprenticeship as a confectioner at George Martin’s sweet factory in Kirkby. This was to have been for five years but, unfortunately, shortly before I qualified, production ceased meaning I was unable to complete the apprenticeship. After a few short-term jobs, I was finally able to join the railway at Shirebrook depot in August 1967 just ten days after marrying my wife, Eileen. I loved my career on the railway progressing from starting in the workshop to guard on the coal trains, then becoming train crew supervisor and finally traffic controller at the headquarters in Nottingham.

Howard & friend as young apprentices
Throughout this time, I always worked round the clock seven days a week, which made my ambition to join a choir difficult. In March 1996 I had the opportunity to take early retirement and as I had really troublesome asthma at that time, I took the opportunity. I actually had two ambitions for my retirement: one was to learn German and the other to join a choir. I joined a night school class for German in September and whilst there I discovered that there were two people in the class who sang in two different choirs. On finding out that I was interested they each wanted to claim me. The lady told me that her choir practised on Thursdays and the gentleman, Derek Brammer, was a member of M&DMVC which practised on Tuesdays which, for me, was more convenient. Following this I was invited to go along with Derek, in January 1997 – and the rest is history as they say!
I was placed in the first tenor section under the guidance of Ian Grice and John Riley. As time went by the person who really took me under his wing was Peter Evans, who had sung with many different choirs from the age of sixteen and his help was invaluable in giving confidence. The conductor at the time was Roger Holland and Delph Richards was accompanist. I well remember after being with the choir for a few weeks going to the first concert to watch the choir perform. That was at the Brunts School and I found it very difficult not to join in. The first concert I actually sang in was at Edwinstowe Community Hall and I was terrified especially as all my family turned out to support me! One of my favourite songs from that time was ‘Finnish Wood’. I would honestly say that, if anyone is thinking of joining a choir don’t be frightened to give it a try. The choir will be really pleased to welcome you and there will always be people to support you and someone will step forward to be your singing ‘buddy’.

M&DMVC in the town square Heiligenhaus, Germany under the direction of Meryl Chambers with Margaret Ball on the keyboard.

In 2008 I was asked by a lady at chapel if I would consider joining The Hardwick Singers as they were short of tenors. This was a small mixed choir based at Hardwick Hall and consisting mainly of volunteers at the hall. I agreed to give it a try with some trepidation as I had never sung tenor in a mixed choir. I asked Peter Evans if he would like to join too and he agreed which was a great help to me as he had a good deal of mixed choir experience. Like the male voice choir there was a lovely cooperative atmosphere until they decided that all members of the choir must be National Trust volunteers and so a large number of the choir agreed to reform as ‘Take Note’. The choir eventually found a home at Tibshelf Parish Church where we still meet on a Monday led by Jean Ward.

Memorable Choir Experiences
Obviously there have been many highlights to my 24 years with the male voice choir. One of the best was certainly the weekend visit the choir made to Heiligenhaus Male Voice Choir in Mansfield’s twin town. The whole choir was made so welcome by everyone and we stayed at the home of one of their choir members who couldn’t do enough for us. The weather was glorious when we sang twice in the town square on the Saturday and on that evening we had a lovely sociable barbecue behind the fire station! The fire engines had been moved out of the station so that we could move indoors if the weather turned inclement! Of course, when you have two choirs together, there is a sing song, but interestingly, during our visit, the Germans flatly refused to sing anything which was vaguely patriotic.

The Albert Hall concert on my first visit in 2009 with the Welsh Association was a stunning occasion with 900 men on stage. Unfortunately, health and safety has now lowered this number but it is still a wonderful venue. In 2012 the Welsh Association concert was at the Manchester Evening News Arena (now just known as the Manchester Arena). Knowing of its previous history I distinctly remember asking Roy Crabtree if he was looking forward to singing in a railway station? His reply was “Will they take all the trains out?” Previously it had been Manchester Central station.
My wife thought that the sound was better there than in the Albert Hall.

A bit about myself and my family

My wife, Eileen, and I met at Sutton Road Methodist Church in Huthwaite in 1962. The youngsters of the various churches used to meet a lot in those days. We were married in August 1967 and have two sons, Graham and Richard who both live locally.

Eileen came to share my love of railways and we have travelled extensively in Europe and other parts of the world, often by train including a tour right up the western side of Canada for our Silver Wedding and New Zealand, Fiji and Singapore for our retirement celebration. Our favourite countries in Europe are Austria and Switzerland as we love the mountains. In 1990 I became a founder member of the Austrian Railway Group in this country and I served them as Secretary Treasurer for 20 years and still act as Marketing Manager organising and, at times, manning the group’s stand at events all over the country. This has made us many friends in various places throughout the UK who we value highly. My biggest honour was being made an Honorary Member for 25 years’ service.
I am a keen photographer and together we thoroughly enjoy caravanning having, over the years, visited most of Europe from Norway to Hungary and Italy but again, our first love is Austria – we even considered buying a plot of land there once – but we are just as happy touring the UK as the years are advancing. Finally, the Methodist Church is still an important part of our lives. We belong to Skegby Methodist and have been very happy for the choir to use our church for various events and concerts including our very well supported Breakfast Mornings organised by the Choir Supporters’ Group.
As first tenors we are lucky that we have three younger members in the section, Dan, Jono and Timothy who seem quite happy to sing along with us ‘oldies’ and I hope that they will continue to enjoy it for many years to come. It is a pleasure to have them. During these difficult past months, I’m sure that, like other members, one of the things which I have missed most is singing and the fellowship of meeting together.

Howard at the Choir’s 75th Anniversary Gala Dinner

Lynden Lowe

Lynden is a seasoned and very experienced bass section chorister. He is currently the Concert Manager for our choir having previously held this role for St. Edmundsbury MVC. He has an incisive wit and a great ability to connect with people. He is married to Jill and they have two sons Tim, who lives on a narrow boat in Norfolk and Nick who lives in West Bridgford. Here is his story.

I was born in Kirkby-in-Ashfield the younger of identical twins. We started singing aged 7 in St Wilfrid’s Church Choir and in 1968 aged 18 I went to sing at All Saints Church Stanton Hill. It was here that I met Jill in the vestry as we both sang in the choir and, in due course, we were married in 1974.

After the first All Saints practice, I was asked by a chap called Vic Bacon “Are you coming to Mansfield with me?” he meant, of course, Mansfield and District Male Voice Choir. My first rehearsal was at Bridge Street Methodist Church in Mansfield and I think the next person in age to me was about 20 years older. I looked around and thought I would not be coming back here! I was introduced to Arthur Smith the conductor and Vic told me to sit between him and his brother Matt. I remember the very first piece I sang was called “The Herald”, we turned to the back page and started, the words were “Ye Dead My Master Comes” and there was I among a lot of what I thought were old people. Little did I know that I would very soon have 45 new pals; that is how it is with Male Voice Choirs.I remember one particular concert at the Albert Hall in Nottingham with Mr. Harry Mortimer conducting the brass band and male voice choirs. I also remember entering several competitions in which we did not always come first but in which we won on many occasions.

My working life started at 15 with J. Searsons and at 16 I began a 4-year bound apprenticeship as a plumber. I left the choir and my plumbing career in January 1976 to join the Royal Air Force.as an Aircraft Fitter Electrical and during my career worked on many different aircraft mainly in England and Wales.

In 1994, having left the RAF, Jill, and I settled in Suffolk  and I went to work as building service engineer doing mechanical/electrical work in mainly commercial industrial buildings around East Anglia, from Southend to Nottinghamshire.  It was here that I joined The St Edmundsbury Male Voice Choir to resume my singing. Eventually I became the choir concert secretary and I re contacted  Walter Pitchford at Mansfield which led to the choirs exchanging concerts; this relationship continues today. In December 2014 I moved back to the Mansfield area and rejoined the choir. It felt good to be back!

Like all new people in a choir the hardest thing is putting names to faces. The camaraderie of travelling together to another town to sing with another choir or attend a social function with your fellow choir members and friends is a big plus for me and I look forward to rehearsals. I have also sung with church choirs and mixed voice choirs, but there is just something special about a male voice choir that you can’t quite put your finger on.

I enjoy all types of music except RAP and as we have incorporated some modern music into our repertoire, we may attract some younger members. My advice for new members would be to try it for 3 months, do not be afraid to ask for help if it appears difficult, we have ALL been there.

Away from the choir I am chairman of our local U3A, and this keeps me busy along with the many subgroups I belong to, within the U3A. Jill and I enjoy spending time with family and friends from my RAF days who are spread far and wide.