After a vacancy of about 2½ years, Rev Joyce Keyes was ordained and inducted to the charge of Stronsay and Eday in September 1996. Among those present at the induction were: Back row: Rev Fiona Lillie, Stromness, Rev Iain MacDonald, Westray, a minister from Joyce Keyes’ home church in Glasgow and Rev Joan Craig, East Mainland. Front: Rev Bob Mellis, Shapinsay, Rev Joyce Keyes, Rev Frank Bardgett, Community Minister, Rev Marjory McLean, Stromness.
Ian Cooper – “This photo would probably have been taken sometime in 1953/54 as the Church was opened in May 1955and shows some of the workmen who were involved in the building of the new Kirk having a break, Note the machinery in the background – I have a feeling that Health and Safety regulations may not have been quite as strict then as they are today! Standing: James Mowat, Johnno Miller, Tom Carter, James Work Snr, George (Dod) Burghes, Ernest Firth, (contractor) & Sammy Reid. Sitting: Ronnie Garson, Edward Dunnet, Frances Craigie, John Miller, John Pottinger. “
On the left is Rev Claude Brownlie, his wife Louisa and three of their five children: William, Margaret and Claude. William joined the army with the Royal Scots and was killed in Gallipoli in 1915. On the right is Rev Brownlie in his later years
“This new church, manse and glebe was given the name of Mansefield and was only the second Secession Church to have its own place of worship in Orkney, Kirkwall being the first.”
“With the difficulty in travelling when roads were very poor or non-existent, a number of other small chapels also existed on Stronsay at various times, “
“For well over a thousand years the Church has played an important role in life in Orkney and, while there is no exact date for the coming of Christianity to the isles, there is some evidence to suggest that Irish monks had visited the islands, some possibly even settling here, by the early 700s.”
Ian Cooper would love to know the names of any folk on this photograph of the South School pupils & staff, believed to have been taken in the 1920s.
“in 1911, a new concrete slip with a shed atop to house the lifeboat was built at a cost of £3050. All the gear needed for the John Ryburn and its crew was also stored in this shed”
“Built at the Thames Ironworks near Greenwich in London, the John Ryburn was a Watson class lifeboat, 43ft (13m) long with a beam of 12½ft (4m), built at a cost of £2770 -9-5d, and was one of two lifeboats funded from a generous bequest from William McCann of Largs. “
“Stronsay has twice had the privilege of being a Lifeboat Station for the North Isles of Orkney and played host to lifeboats of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution.”
