The trouble with living in the East Midlands is that the phrase 'East Midlands' conveys very little to people who don't live there. Phrases like the Southeast, or the West Midlands immediately conjure up images that other people can relate to. According to where you live, the Midlands can start at Watford, Oxford, Birmingham, or some other arbitrary place. And where does east become west?
The best way to imagine the position of the East Midland area (as defined by the EMU and the GA) is to draw a NW-SE line about 30 miles NE of Birmingham and continue to push this line in a north easterly direction until you get to either the North Sea, or South Yorkshire just south of the Humber estuary.
What is the area like?What about the character of the East Midlands. There is no one word or phrase that I can think of that adequately describes the East Midland area. The best list of words and phrases that I could come up with is farming, hosiery, knitwear, footwear, fox-hunting, stately homes, coal-mining, fishing, leisure, industrial, the Royal Air Force, and multiracial.
The district of the East Midland Unitarians covers the counties of Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire, Rutland and most of Derbyshire (Chesterfield
and Great Hucklow are in Sheffield district). We are also known as the North Midland Presbyterian and Unitarian Association and have been since 1865 and, we hope to retain this name in the future as a legal title. Our chapels extend as far south as Hinckley, as far west as
Derby, as far north as Lincoln, and as far east as Boston. We also have such historical gems such as the Old Meeting House at Mansfield, "the chapel in the trees" at Kirkstead
(Woodhall Spa), chapel at Belper and the Great Meeting at Leicester. Our Nottingham chapel is probably the centre of the district but unfortunately we no longer own the beautiful gothic Victorian church dating from 1876 in the lace quarter of Nottingham with its William Morris stained glass windows, which is now the "Pitcher and Piano" restaurant, and well worth a visit. Our most recent congregations are Charnwood Unitarian Fellowship which is based at Castle Donington, near the East Midlands Airport and
Loughborough, and Leicester Unitarian Fellowship
who meet in an Asian Community Centre.
Why come and visit us?
Even if our liberal relaxed attitude to worship doesn't attract you, many of our chapels are unique, have historic architectural features or contain historic treasures. Lincoln chapel has a unique mural, historic wooden pillars and the Disney window. Belper Chapel has historic box pews and the arched catacombs contain the tombs of the Strutt family. Leicester chapel is the earliest completely brick built building in the city. Mansfield has historic stained glass, and Hinckley has two unique tapestries of the tree of life, box pews, an egg-cup pulpit and a parliament clock.
Our historical roots as an association go back to the meeting of Presbyterian Ministers of Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire and South Yorkshire (dating from 1798) which decided to admit lay people in 1802. Most of our congregations owe their existence to the Act of Uniformity of 1662 which, forced clergy to use the Book of Common Prayer or be deprived of their living. This common root is commemorated in "Three Hundred Years" a history of the Unitarian chapels in the East Midlands published in 1963, written by Rev. Gordon Bolam, the father of Eric, our current district treasurer. Another person we owe a debt of gratitude to is the late Grenville Needham under whose guidance the NMPUA was incorporated and the present constitution codified which gave us the financial stability that we continue to enjoy to the present day. Under the twenty year secretaryship of Peter Hewis the district found renewed enthusiasm and, more recently a "Working Group" containing Sir Peter Soulsby, Ruth Archer, David Burton and others reviewed the district and its congregations and gave them fresh impetus. This Working Group has recently been reformed under the name of "Vision".
Nottingham University holds records of North Midlands Presbyterian and Unitarian Association, 1785-1959The district is currently run by a General Committee consisting of a president (elected for two years), a secretary, a treasurer, and an assistant treasurer (all elected annually), and congregational representatives (at least two per congregation). In the president's final year a vice-president is elected to suceed them. The district also has a publicity officer. The recently formed "Vision" Group plans events and undertakes tasks on behalf of the General Committee. The finance sub-committee of ten (the four officers plus six additional finance committee members, elected for three years - two retiring each year ,review requests for funding prior to the quarterly general meetings. The GC meets five times a year; on the first Saturday afternoon of March, September and December, the second Saturday in June (so as not to clash with Hucklow Open Day), and at the Annual General Meeting which is held in October, the meetings of which are hosted by a different chapel or fellowship each time.
What other events do we hold?The other (annual) events are currently EMU Weekend (incorporating Family Day at Hucklow), the Joint Annual Service which is hosted by a different chapel each year, and Xmas Lunch at Great Hucklow. The original Family Day was where one congregation played host to all the other congregations for the day on a Saturday in late Spring or early Summer and organised food and local sightseeing trips. In 2001 an E.M.U. Weekend was held at the Nightingale Centre, Great Hucklow, Derbyshire in place of Family Day where some people did come just for the day. The EMU weekend was booked again in 2002 and has been repeated each year since. The district also organises one-day seminars on a variety of topics; there have been ones on Publicity, Unitarianism, and Fundraising whilst the web-master has been in post. The ministers of the district periodically run courses on leading worship; the last one was on taking the service and other courses are hoped to be held in the future. The district publicity officer has run courses on writing web pages for the district, as a follow up to the work he did in putting all the active congregations in the district on the World Wide Web and writing/maintaining this web page.
Also on Pulpit Exchange Sunday which is sometimes run in October each congregation has its service taken by another minister or lay preacher.
* due for re-election
Email: - webmaster
Snailmail: 46, Brookside, Burbage, Hinckley, Leics., UK, LE10 2TL
Tel: 07753-831499
Email: - district secretary
Snailmail: 11 Herrick Close, Sileby, Loughborough, Leics., UK, LE12 7RL
Tel: 01509-812236