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'Woodlands Project Centre' was the name of a large building on Wellington Street, Matlock, during the mid 1960's. It had previously been a spa and a school, but now it had been bought by a Christian organisation for the grand price of £20 000. It had 70 roms, classrooms, and dormitories. In 1966 it was in fairly bad repair having been vacant since closing as a school in 1964.

Alterations were done to convert the large building into a conference centre with flats for the team members. It was quite a warren for a young child and I, together with the other children of the team, explored and found various treasures. I clearly remember finding a box of dressing up clothes and the fight between the girls was to get the blue frilly dress! I rescued a half made cane basket, obviously from the school days, which I dearly would have liked to finish, but didn't!

As one entered the iron archway from Wellington Street, walked up the garden pathway, up the few stairs to the grand front door, you would enter a foyer, with a reception room on the left and a reception desk and office space on the right. This space also eventually housed the bookshop for conferences and visitors which was run mainly by my father.

Along a passageway was a large dining room, seating 150, with windows all round and a lovely big clock which Mr Jackson came to service regularly with his long ladder. I believe Mr Jackson was in his 70's or 80's and he was still climbing that ladder to keep the clock going! This room was used to celebrate my parents 25th wedding anniversary! The reception lounge in the front was used for the reception of my sister's wedding!

A little room off the dining room became our tuckshop selling among the usual things, marshmallow mice!

Behind the office area was a lounge; a very large room, much bigger than most of our entire houses today, to seat 100! Soft sofas and chairs which one could simply slip into and read quietly unseen! This room was the venue for 'after church' sing-a-longs! Upstairs were dormitories and flats and on the top floor was a room we were not allowed, as children, to enter as the stairs and pesumably the floor was not safe. Strangely enough this room was nicknamed 'heaven'!!

The director of the organisation had a large flat at the end of the building, with a large lounge/dining area where one little girl was asked to say grace at a meal. "Thankyou God for the food, but not the peas! Amen."

In the winter the milkman would slide down the ten or more snowy steps at the back of the building to leave the milk. On the back piece of ground / grass, on November 5th, we had a bonfire, and a small fair kind of affair! A caravan converted into a hot-dog stand and a few other caravans, and of course the Catherine Wheels and fireworks.

The chapel was a separate building in the back garden area, seating 200 people, where I recall one particular gathering where a current Matlock resident, played his own compositions of music, some songs he'd written himself and others on the team had also written, and some just new tunes to old hymns.

In summer the front garden was ablaze with bluebells and my friend and I would pick small bunches and try and 'sell' them to folk walking up the road!!

Numerous conferences brought people from all over the world - Brother Andrew, author of God's Smuggler; Corrie Ten Boom and numerous others.

At some point after 1969 it was bought by someone else and changed once again. In 2005 it appeared to have been partly demolished and converted into a number of flats. But Woodlands Project Centre, Wellington Street, Matlock, Derbyshire, DE4 3GU, was my largest childhood home!

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