I have spoken with my elderly aunt again, and her father was born at Stillington in 1884. His tale of going to Grindon Church was when he was 5 or 6 years old, so that dates the story to 1890.
I now have the detail that the vicar who took the Sunday School lesson at Grindon (Rev. Cassidi), also went to the family's home at Stillington for his Sunday dinner, so there was no way that the young boy could duck out of Sunday School.
My aunt admits that it is possible that the Stillington children went to Grindon in the summer months, when the lack of a roof on the old church may not have been a problem. But it still sounds a rather strange place to go for a lesson.
Cliff

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Hi Cliff

If we are talking about the 1890s the when the vicar was visiting the family for Sunday lunch must have been the Rev. Henry Boddy as William Cassidi died in 1882. If it really was William Cassidi this would push the time frame back to the early 1880s or before.

It’s an interesting story and one worth getting to the bottom of. I don't think this story is any stranger than the one about the scouts camping out in the old churchyard in the 1940s.

Thanks

Mark

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