I remember in the 1900 period going to Coleorton Moor to the mine manager’s house, to take a price for some alterations to the Baptist Chapel, including a Baptistry. Mr Arthur Boot, who made the drawings and I went on bikes in a winter evening, I think the worst I experienced. We reached Coleorton Turn where there was a public house kept by the Bakewell’s*. There, nearly exhausted from facing the wind and snow we sat in front of a good fire, had a warm drink and then on again. There were 3 prices for the work and ours was the middle one, a pound or two more than the lowest. However, the trustees whom we met gave me the job, perhaps as a reward for turning out on such an awful night, added to the fact that my father built the chapel about 30 years before.

The job was completed satisfactorily and I took a trap and a lad we employed to clear away steps, tools etc. When we arrived our bricklayer was there. He had filled the white glazed baptistry with water, put a pencil line at water level and was lying down to test if it held without leaking, which it did. The bricklayer had pushed the wooden cover to one side so it overhung the water. The lad was very curious to know what the man was doing and dropped down beside him. I went outside to look round the job. A minute later I heard a call and ran back to see the lad in the water. What happened was this, the lad still curious, lay on the cover and as he moved forward the cover tilted and in he went. We pulled him out and ran him to the nearest house, and put him in front of the fire, it was a very cold day. However, he was none the worse and wrapped in borrowed clothes we drove back to Coalville, so ended the unauthorised baptism!

*This would be The King’s Arms, kept by Isaac Bakewell also known as ‘Basher Bakewell’, for reasons I will leave to the readers imagination!