Jackie Friday

How long have you lived on the island?

I was born on the island, I moved away for a brief period, moved to Sittingbourne, when I was about 9 or 10, and then from when I got married I moved to Portsmouth because my husband was in the navy, and then when we moved back to the island since 1987 and I’ve been here ever since, but I was actually born here.

Can you describe what the church looked like then?

What the church looked like then? It was closed, the overnight ferry used to run from there which I went on, but the actual dockyard was shut, for dockyard personnel, so it was quite quiet.

Do you have any jobs, if so, what are they?

I work in a GP’s surgery, I work for the NHS, I’m an office manager, and our surgeries based up at the Sheppey community hospital.

Are you interested in this history, if so, can you tell me a bit about your memories of there?

Yes I am interested. Unfortunately my nan is not around, she would be 102 this year (laughing) but um, it was always interesting listening to their stories because both of their husbands were service personnel and used to work in the dockyard, Sheerness dockyard, in the RAF, so it was always nice to listen about that sort of thing. Also my uncle worked in Sheerness dockyard, till it closed, and then moved to Chatham and then that closed and then a lot of people moved down to Plymouth for the dockyard, but it was interesting to hear all about it.

Can you describe what the interior looked like?

I can’t remember, I don’t know. I only many many years ago, I remember going there once but that’s about it really, I never went inside, walked around, not in Sheerness dockyard.

Do you have any pictures of the church?

I haven’t got any photos of the church just a brief glimpse of the outside but that’s my nan and grandads, but unfortunately  I never met my grandad because he passed away when my mum was about four, they lived in Beach Street in Sheerness, you can go up to the beach from there, that’s where they lived when they got married, they got married in the dockyard church, 25th April 1958, and there’s the marriage certificate of when they got married and he was in the RAF.

My nan lived in Granville Road with her family and he lived with his mum in Beach Street and then they all lived in Beach Street, tiny little house.

Do you know  anything about the wedding itself, the ceremony?

No I don’t, I only have this photo that my aunt had, didn’t take many photos in those days unfortunately, so this is the only photo of them on their wedding day, I don’t even know, I forgot to ask Maria, I think one of them is her sister, it’s times like this you want your mum around to say more about it. So yeah, this is the only photo I’ve seen of it in the last few months, I’ve seen lots of photos, we had lots of photos, on the slides and that. But this is the only photo I’ve seen of their wedding. I’m sure she used to tell me, that she was one of the first to get married in the church, do you hold the church records?

Yes, the church records are held in the library actually

Oh, I’d like to have a look at that, so I’m sure that’s what she said but I could be wrong. As I say, my aunt gave me the marriage certificate so we could have a look at it.

Should we keep the church and if so, why?

Yes! Yes, we should, it’s part of our history, it’s part of Sheppey, we can’t pull it down. I remember when there was a fire there, many years ago, but that was a shame.

Do you know how the church burnt down?

No I remember, because my ex-husband is a fireman and he was there, many many hours, but I can’t remember what caused it, I’m not sure if it was arson or whether it was an electrical accident. 1994, was it then? Was it? Well I don’t know we’ll have to have a look at that, it was a long time.

Do you remember how you felt about it?

It was a shame, I mean anything like that, when you see, when the Cutty Sark goes up in the flames, when some of the pier’s go up in flames, oh it’s devastating, and people work so hard to restore it, I think it’s brilliant, it’s worth keeping.

We certainly think so

Can people go and see there, what’s going on at the moment or is it a no go area?

At the moment it’s closed off for safety reasons, but hopefully with the funding application things will start, things will be secured

Will it be used as a church like people can have services there or will it be like a museum?

It will be used, we have some plans you can look at, it’s going to be a bit of a community space, with offices for small businesses, so something that can be used for the whole community, so various activities educational activities, it’ll have a multipurpose use, so it won’t just go back to being a church.

So the fire, back in the 90s, it was closed, shut since?

Actually it was a boxing club for a while and then a youth club

Do you have any final memories or thoughts?

Well I don’t know too much, it’s a shame all our older generations didn’t get to tell us about it, did you have people who used to work in the dockyard tell you about it?

Yes

Yeah all I’ve got is my grandma really, her second marriage was in the Trinity Church, she got married for the second time sixty years ago in June, it would have been sixty years in June.

… the overnight ferry used to run from there which I went on, but the actual dockyard was shut…

If you have your own memories of the dockyard church – as a church, a social club or as it is now, we’d love to hear from you. We're also keen to build an image archive by making copies of photographs and memorabilia of the church.

If you’d like to contribute memories or images to the archive, please tell us a bit more about what you have using the form.