by truthseeker 20 Replies latest jw friends
Did you ever go to the Haysbridge assembly hall in Surrey?
Post your experiences. The assembly hall I believe used to be a reformed school for boys and was completely renovated and dedicated in 1985.
It was the only assembly hall I knew of that sold souvenir pens, book marks and notepads.
We were hardly ever allowed on the grass at lunch time.
I volunteered to do some maintenance one weekend and got to see all the "secret" rooms.
I worked with my husband on renovating Hayes Bridge, we were pioneers with one child and another on the way. My husband would drive from inner London out to Hayesbridge every day after he had done his early morning cleaning and work all day there. I went to look after the children on weekends in a type of creche. I helped stripping the old linoleum of the floors in the naughty boys dormitaries, we were two sisters that did it by hand...it was really hard back breaking work..along comes a brother to take over and supervise us...he lasted about 15mins...we just laughed at him...no stickability...just wanted to look important.
We worked for a year there...I admired my husbands willingness, he worked his butt off there. I remember he couldnt always get there for 8am because of the traffic and leaving his work, one morning a brother on the gate sarcastically asked him who he thought he was coming so late for the morning text and prayer. I think my husband asked him where he was when my husband was earning his families keep at 4am in the morning...shut him up.
Still there were many good experiences from haysbridge..it was before the days of complete control by the Wt so people got away with a lot more and there was a lot of fun on site. The friendships with the lads working there was great..we often had up to six volunteers sleeping in our flat (one in the bath tub!)
I havent been back in Britain for years and havnt visited the place since 1990 so have no idea how it is today...remember creeping around the back lanes to get to the hall so as not to annoy the people living close by.
chicken little
Yep knew all the 'secret rooms'.
As a family we did the regular maintenance twice a year with extras as needed due to others halfs 'worldy qualifications'. LOL.
Also worked during the renovation /construction stage.
Got on really well with Chris and Dennis the 2 overseers who lived on site - are they still there?
Other half even had a phone call from Chris some time after we had left the org for some technical info on the M&E plant.
Remember the announcements about keeping off the grass at lunchtime-such a shame.
We always eat in the car and later our camper van which was even better.
Does anyone remember the map that you got with your parking tickets with the correct route to follow so as not to upset the neighbours?
Another thing what about the lovely kitchen that was put in - remember cleaning that after lunch so missed most of the afternnoon session.
Doing cleaning during the morning session and talking and having a laugh with the other volunteers.
Carefully managed you could miss most of the ASSembly as long as you where happy to don rubber gloves and wield a mop.
Been out for about 8 years so dont know what its like now.
Anglise
Anglise,
I enjoyed reading about your exps.
The kitchens were great, they once served shepherds pie while we were over doing maintenance.
I always volunteered for the cleaning dept - trying to make the job last as long as possible to avoid sitting through more boring talks.
Once I even got made an attendant!!!! I felt so up there - I had to ask a sister to count those in the bathrooms to get an accurate headcount.
Anyone remember Bro. Ellis? Nice chap, used to be in charge of everything, at least for that session.
I always wondered why some staircases were roped off. The last few times I went, whole sections of the auditorium were roped off.
It was always a difficult hall to find.
I went up there with my brother once and we got hopelessly lost.
Who remembers when they went from cooked meals to tea and biscuits and then nothing?
ChickenLittle,
Thanks for your exp. I used to own a video which showed the construction work going on Hayes Bridge. I bought it in the souvenir shop, cost me 6 quid.
Wow, 8 years since a reply, but that's alright... In spite of being bored mindless by talks, dramas, and so-called compendiums (or compendia, was that what the multiple section things were called?)... Anyway, I used to doodle a lot. I liked meeting people our family was fond of, seeing folks we knew we'd see there. I guess there was comfort, reassurance in it, that so-and-so was still "coming along"... I remember at Hayes Bridge, possible the last time I went with my parents, I had a notepad for doodling and decided to play naughts and crosses with myself. I worked out by myself that it was always impossible to lose if you knew what you were doing and how to win if the other person didn't know what they were doing... Yes, I was a very spiritual geeky kid :) What I absolutely LOVED about Hayes Bridge that they eventually did away with for some reason (perhaps along with that not-for-profit cleaning up when they stopped officially charging for publications and had suggested donations instead) was those 50p strips of tickets. My granddad used to buy us some before he was dissed, and I don't know what I did with the remaining few except try to save them up for something, but thinking about this now, it's crazy to think that I used to use 7x 5p tickets to by a caramel or mint something chocolate bar. No idea what brand, but sweets!!! And only 35p for a whole chocolate bar! I don't even remember what else they used to sell in those lunch rooms at Hayes Bridge...
I think Truthseeker still comes by sometimes so he might even see that his thread has been resurrected. I know the Bro. Ellis he is talking about. He recently got thrown off as an elder, after 40+ years, for saying a few words at the funeral of a non-witness friend when a pastor also said a few words. Interfaith apparently. Probably the one time he actually followed his heart, humanity and conscience.
As for Haysbridge - it's still going but they have changed the carpets and seats to a horrible blue colour to try and stop people going to sleep. Doesn't work.
HAHA! My family has told me about the colour, but I think that red and white was weird anyway.
I remember this hall being "built", i believe it opened in May 1986 and took a year to build, it was originally Red seating and carpets. Originally would serve food until some government crack down meant couldn't eat onsite. There was huge issues with traffic locally so each congregation had an allotted route to get in, i cant say for sure how many times i went as from about 1993/4 i no longer associated with this religion.
The few years i went, i met / saw Ken Richmond who was the "Gong Man" who would whack that huge gone for The Rank Organization (seen before there movies). My memories were not bad of being there (along with Dorking (a theater used before this and some school in between that and this new hall). I understand the religion is way worse now than it was back in the 80's and from my reading really not good in USA. All i can say is after leaving then actually investigating what the bible says, this religion seems to have read between way to many lines as i cant find most of what they preach in the bible itself, in fact i few points they contradict there own bible.
