Apart from my life at home and in church, I started work at 16 as an apprentice draughtsman in the Drawing Office of a Shipyard. Whilst it was considered a ‘white-collar’ job, I was brought into contact with boys and men of a very different background from my own.

It was soon known that I was a person who believed all ‘that Bible stuff’, and was often involved in arguments about church, the Bible, evolution, etc. Sometimes I ‘won’ the argument, at others we just agreed to differ. I must have been quite insufferable on occasions with my prudish ways and my lack of experience in ‘normal’ life: I didn’t swear, smoke, drink, go to the cinema, theatre, etc. I hope that I learned from daily contact with ordinary people.

In the Shipyard itself there was a small group of Christians who met twice a week at lunchtime for prayer and Bible discussion. These men, who came from different churches, trades, and backgrounds, were a help to me in broadening my understanding of Christian living; not to be ‘cloistered’ like monks or hermits, but to live out their faith in a hard working environment. I remember with gratitude men like Elijah (yes, that was his name!) from the slipway squad, Roy, who was a fitter, John, a plumber, and others, from whom I also learned much.

As part of my apprenticeship I had to attend day-release courses in Shipbuilding and Naval Architecture in the local Technical College for the whole five years. Whilst there I started up a branch of The Technical Colleges Christian Fellowship, but this never really ‘took off’ due as much to the time constraints of work and study.

From the age of 18 I began to preach on Tyneside (totally untrained!) My mother often preached at Ladies Groups (outside our church grouping) and on occasion I deputised if she was ill. I began to preach regularly in the Gospel Halls of our particular persuasion. Due to my friendship with Christians at work, I often preached in other churches. As a result, I was banned from at least one pulpit, to my knowledge. (This meant that I was already beginning to break some of the unwritten rules of ‘our churches’)

All of these things I suppose were a seedbed for questions and doubts which were never verbalised. Such things were never expressed or discussed, as we knew that we would be labelled ‘liberal’ or ‘modernist’ or maybe even ‘unsaved’ by others. My education had already sown doubts about our interpretation of the Creation Story as told in Genesis ch 1. [Education was generally looked upon with suspicion by many of our older members!]