Churchill Methodist Church.

Nowadays there is much less difference in style of worship and ecumenical relations have improved considerably. United Services take place several times a year and the Chapel has been used by the Anglicans for a weekday Communion each month.   Services are held on Sunday mornings at 11 o’clock; you don’t have to be a Methodist to come, all are welcome - and it’s always warm!   I remember, when a lad, the old men talking about the days when the Squire ruled the village and the old feudal system was still largely in place. It was a benevolent form of paternalism: prizes were given annually for the best kept garden - but woe betide anyone whose was judged the worst. The villagers were expected to attend the Parish Church every Sunday and it didn’t do to be away without a good reason. Non-conformists received no encouragement: it is said that the squire’s agent forced the closure of the old Primitive Methodist Chapel.. Visiting preachers who tried to hold open air meetings here reported that when the clip clop of horse’s hooves was heard approaching, any folk listening would quickly vanish.

In my early days Churchill was very much an agricultural village with almost all the able-bodied men working on the farms or at the blacksmith’s shop. Everyone knew everyone else, many of the families having been here for generations. The village shop stocked most of the essentials, we had our own baker and a policeman who lived here and cycled round the neighbouring parishes. The most common crime then was riding a bike after dark without lights or riding on the footpath. It wasn’t really necessary to lock doors, though garden gates had to be kept shut as cows walked up and down the roads each day on their way to be milked. The local publican, who was also a small farmer, delivered milk round the village with his horse and cart. Our own farm’s milk went by train to London and the pony had to be caught and harnessed in time to take it to Sarsden Halt by 7.20 each morning during the week. On Sundays it went to Kingham Junction and then the pony and trap would take us to Chapel in Chipping Norton until we had a Chapel here in Churchill.