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A Golden Wedding Anniversary Celebration

A Golden Wedding Anniversary Celebration

CrieffCarole Barrat-Peacock

Stephen and I met at Aberdaron youth camp one summer when I was 15 and he was 18. I lived in Manchester and Stephen lived in Coventry so we were 100 miles apart. Stephen regularly hitchhiked up to Manchester to visit me, and in this way we were friendly for about 2 1/2 years. Subsequently we parted and I moved to Leicester to do my teacher training at Scraptoft, then we met up again in my final year and resumed our friendship, getting married in Manchester on August 1st, 1971, by Pastor Ron Surridge.

We bought a tiny cottage which was almost derelict and we lived in a touring caravan in the garden for the first nine months of our marriage whilst our builder, with Steve as his assistant, renovated it for us. Stephen worked with his father and mother in the family business of Watchmakers and Jewellers in Coventry, whilst I taught Maths and Science for two years in a secondary school in Bedworth, then for another two years at a middle school in Rugby. We attended the Coventry SDA church, and during these first years of our marriage, were a part of the ‘Gate’ Christian folk club. It was a busy time, but very rewarding, with several people including Pastor John Fergusson and Pastor Peter Jeynes came to join the SDA church, through Gate.

Our daughter Claire arrived in March 1976, then our son Jonathan in November 1978. We lived happily in our little cottage in Long Lawford but moved to Stretton on Dunsmore in 1983 in order for our children to attend a Church of England controlled school. During this time we led out in Adult and children’s Sabbath School, and other church offices in Coventry.

As a result of our house group Bible study and prayer meeting held in a home in Warwick, those of us who lived outside the Coventry area were impressed that we needed a church group in the town of Royal Leamington Spa, and were founder members of the Leamington Mission church, meeting firstly in a chapel attached to a nursing home, then in a school and finally after years of building and renovation work led by Pastor Alan Conroy, we met in the present building in Leamington.

We both worked for many years in the Peacock family business until we moved to Scotland where Stephen worked at Roundelwood Health Spa, and Carole as Administrative Secretary in the Scottish Mission office. After Roundelwood was closed, Stephen worked for Rob Roy Homes, until retirement.

We are now retired, enjoying living in this beautiful part of the world, and very involved in Crieff church. We have so much to thank God for in leading and guiding our lives over our fifty years of marriage and for the blessings of family - a caring daughter, son and daughter-in-law, and three lovely grandchildren.

We celebrated this milestone of 50 years together, with friends and family in the grounds of Crieff church, 1st August 2021.