Janet Hayward (née Unwin) grew up in Bishops Road, close to St John’s, and was brought to the church by her mother. Her brothers attended the Sunday School. Janet attended St John’s School in the 1960s, and was a member of the Brownies and Girl Guides, which met in the Lathbury. Janet remembers Patricia Lyon was Brown Owl and Guide Captain.
During Janet’s time the church choir changed from being all-male to mixed, though only after the Vicar was lobbied by Janet and her peers to include women among its ranks. This was in the early 1970s. Initially women were not allowed in the Chancel wearing black, so in the early days Janet and her friends wore their blue Girl Guide uniforms. Later they made their own blue cassocks, raising the money for the fabric by doing a sponsored walk.
Janet attended the youth club at the church, then held in the Lathbury Institute. Activities included badminton, table tennis, and playing records, and there was a trip to a London theatre to see Godspell. One year the club went on a camp at Santon Downham near Thetford in Norfolk. When Janet and her friends wanted to hold a disco in the 1970s they realized the Lathbury would be too small, so they set about cleaning up the school, which had been closed for a year or two. Their initiative caught the attention of the local paper, which featured their cleaning enterprise on its front page, complete with photograph. The success of the disco led to the club being relocated to the St John’s Centre, or ‘Centre’, as the old school became known. The youth club used to put on shows at the Centre.
The Centre was also used as a vestry for the church choir. Janet remembers the choirmaster, John Fry, as an inspiring figure, and owes her lifelong love of music and performing to his influence. Janet is a member of the Abbot Consort, which Fry founded in 1973 and led for many years. The Consort continues to use St John’s, with its wonderful acoustic, for rehearsals and concerts, and also sings at some of the special services during the year.
Janet and her husband married in the church in 1976 and held their reception in the Centre. Later their son attended the Toy Library and Playschool in the Centre. Janet has served at the church as a sidesperson and secretary of the Parochial Church Council for several years.