Volume Nine - Pre-Victorian to the present day - even more aspects - The Missions to Seamen at Penarth . . .

c.1912 - A view of the Missions to Seamen's Reading Rooms at Penarth Dock in the early days of the twentieth century.

The Evening News in January 1956 (I am unsure of the source/town/city) provided the following charming account of the spark which started the Missions to Seamen (However, there is some concern re. the accuracy of this story in that John Ashley was only 2 y.o. at the time! [1269]) : -

A Boy's Curiosity Began the Missions to Seamen - 'Sunshine glinting on a cottage window far out in the Bristol Channel attracted the attention of a small boy walking by the seashore at Clevedon, Somerset. It prompted him to ask his father how the people who lived on the little island of Flat Holm got to church.

It was just one of those questions which youngsters ask their parents but the child's father was the Rev. Dr. John Ashley, and instead of being content to give some vague answer, he hired a boat and went to see for himself. Dr. Ashley found that the islanders had no clergyman. So he made his home among them, and when one day a fleet of fishing vessels became becalmed in the Penarth Roads he lost no time in extending his 'parish boundaries'. Steadily the Bristol Channel mission grew and prospered until in 1856 - 21 years later - it absorbed other organisations ministering to seafarers under the title of The Missions to Seamen - 'The Flying Angel' Missionary Society of the Church of England.'

To celebrate its centenary in 1956 there was a service of thanksgiving at Westminster Abbey attended by the Queen Mother. Sir Arthur Bliss. Master of the Queen's Music was commissioned to compose a new anthem for the service. A pilgrimage to Flat Holm was also included within the programme of events that year. Sadly, the Penarth Dock Mission to Seamen closed its doors in 1936 due to the pending closure of the docks but relocated to a smaller building situate at the entrance to the dock, twixt the Penarth Dock and Cogan railway stations. The Mission building on the dock was demolished during the early to mid-1960's as I recall.