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Wilton Spiritualist Church was not always in Wilton - nor was that always it’s
title. It began in 1938 in the Assembly Rooms in Salisbury ( now the upper
floor of Waterstones book shop ) when a famous medium of the day, Winifred
Moyes, spoke at the inaugural meeting.
Miss Moyes was the founder of the Greater World Christian Spiritualist League
and a trance speaker of exceptional power when controlled by her Guide, who
used the nom-de-plume Zodiac. It was claimed that he was the Roman
soldier who offered the sponge to Jesus as he hung on the cross. Whether
true or not, he gave teachings of a very high spiritual order, over many years,
through Miss Moyes, which are still used in Christian Spiritualist churches to
this day.
And so, the Salisbury Christian Spiritualist Church was born, using the old
British Legion Hall as it’s first home. The prime movers at the time were Dr
Martin Griffin and his wife, May, who were to contribute hugely to the early
history of the church - as did their daughter, Pamela, a trained opera singer,
who took on the organ duties for some years after her father’s passing into
Spirit in 1969.
Martin Griffin was a Doctor of Philosophy and became the first President of the
Church in 1938, ably supported by May who was a clairvoyant medium and
trance speaker. Although an upper class English lady, when in trance she
was controlled by a Somerset rustic named George who addressed the
congregations in a broad accent - presenting quite an odd spectacle to anyone
entering the Church for the first time !
In 1943 Dr Griffin went into military service and May took over the Presidency
and kept this position until 1974 when a stroke curtailed her activities. But,
for all those years Mrs. Griffin and Salisbury Christian Spiritualist Church were
one and the same thing. She worked tirelessly for her Church and she
expected no less from others. In 1996 Mrs. Griffin joined her husband in
Spirit at the grand old age of 90.
The Church had many different homes in the early days - in dusty halls heated
by oil stoves and, for a time, a music shop in Queen Street Chequer in
Salisbury. The Labour Hall - now an Evangelical Church - also provided a
shelter for the church in it’s itinerant days.
Eventually, it found a permanent home in Greencroft Street, in an upper room
next to the Barley Mow, now occupied by motor repairers and various other
businesses. This was home from 1947 right up until 1963.
Once more, eviction loomed. At the Church’s spiritual circle, Dr Griffin’s
Guide told the sitters that they had found a Church. It was disused and they
would recognise it by a feature on the chancel arch. They would find a bunch
of grapes in plaster on one side of the archway and a different design on the
other side.
About this time, the chapel of the old Wilton workhouse - now Moody’s
Furniture Depository - was being offered for rent and a small group of
committee members went to view it. They knew immediately from the grapes
design on one side of the chancel arch that this was to be their Church. The
rent of £4 per week was steep, but their resolve had been stiffened by the
Spirit messages they had received over the previous months. If the costs
were not always met by the small congregation, the Griffins would always
quietly make it up from their own pockets. However, the rent was never
increased from their occupation in 1963.
It was furnished, after a fashion, with anything members could beg, give or
borrow. Bits of carpet, coconut matting - invariably damp. Ffolding chairs,
deck chairs and rank of three forlorn cinema seats bolted to a few planks to hold
them steady. They had seen better days in some picture palace in the thirties
and seemed to accept their reduced circumstances with some dignity.
Overhead electric radiant heaters presented the illusion of winter heat, but
only actually delivered it to the ceiling and the appreciative birds who perched
on the roof. If anyone complained about the cold, Mrs. Griffin told them that
the power of the Spirit would keep them warm !
In 1975, the grocery wholesalers who owned the Church, for some reason lost
in history, relocated to Calne and the committee asked if they could buy the
Church. The estate agents recommended that the cost should be equal to
eight years rent. As the rent was still four pounds per week, this worked out
at the princely sum of £1,600 which was rounded down to £1,500. Since the
smallest house in Salisbury would have cost you £6,000 at the time, such a
small price for a hundred seat Church with a hall behind has to rank as the
bargain of the Century. And it all hung on a bunch of grapes !
The Church affiliated to the Spiritualists’ National Union in the mid 1970’s.
Mrs. Griffin would never countenance ‘Salisbury’ being dropped from the
Church’s name, although it had been causing confusion for years. It was also
felt that Spiritualism was a universal religion, rather than simply a Christian
one. So, in 1980, seventeen years after the move to Wilton, the Church
adopted it’s present name. So, although the Church has been in it’s present
home for 35 of it’s 60 years, the name is relatively new.
Today, the Church looks very different to how it did in the sixties. The plaster
is no longer falling from the walls. There is a porch to keep the heat in and
we are no longer God’s frozen people !!
Now there is a central heating system - a gift from a congregation member in
thanks for healing he had received through Mrs. Griffin. There are padded
seats donated by a Durrington couple for the messages of comfort they had
received from their loved ones in Spirit. As for the couple of dozen people
who used to go there - well, most of them are in the Spirit World now. But, no
doubt, they are looking down at the congregations we get today.
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