St Luke's Old Church
I'm not fond of poetry but I really like these verses from John Heywood's "St Luke's Old Church". He was born in 1808, was postmaster in Heywood and the printer of the Heywood Advertiser from the 1850s. He was also a song-writer and poet and he wrote this when Heywood Chapel was being demolished at the beginning of 1860. Verses 7 and 9 are about a character called Josiah Nuttall the bird-stuffer, a famous taxidermist who lived next door to the Queen Anne and died in 1848.
St Luke's Old Church by John Heywood
Some fifty years it's been my lot,
To pass life's somewhat chequered scene,
A little distance from the spot
Where lately stood, with modest mien,
St Luke's Old Church.
No lofty spire sprang from its base,
No Gothic sculpture marked its walls;
Yet much I loved the humble place
For first I heard sweet gospel calls,
In that Old Church.
Beside my door in thoughtful mood
I heard the knell of '59-
Knell of the parting year - I stood
Regretting that 'twas also thine
St Luke's Old Church.
I grieve to see a noble tree
Uprooted from its native earth,
Nor could I less regret to see,
Thy walls thrown down as little worth
St Luke's Old Church.
But many relics which exist
In cottage homes I love to see,
A picture, cupboard, shelf or chest
As heirlooms of respect for thee
St Luke's Old Church.
Here sleep the generations passed,
The men who toiled in days of yore -
Who courted wealth, or honour chased,
Or clothed and fed the village poor -
Rest in this yard.
Twelve years have only run their round
And swell'd the tide of years before,
Since one was laid beneath the ground
Whose fame was known in village lore,
Near this Churchyard.
His homestead was a whiten'd cot,
Well stored with birds of varied hue;
Where loitering schoolboys often sought
To take a stol'n, yet welcome view
Near this Churchyard.
Let others, who are fond of change,
Expatiate in all things new;
My thoughts will still delight to range
With those who lov'd, however few,
St Luke's Old Church.
