This group of young women is believed to be of the New Connection Methodist Sunday School teachers and to be dated about 1890.

The New Connexion chapel in Beeston was on Chapel Street, one of two chapels on the street, the other being the Wesleyan chapel. The lady seated at the front, second from the right, with the dark-edged collar, is Edith Hudston (1876-1963) who later (in 1911) married John Whitworth Bowlzer. The couple had two children Marjorie and Doreen. Marjorie married John Sutton who was well known as a local school headmaster, as a member of the Council and as a Boys' Brigade officer. Edith spent much of her life in charity work, notably the National Children's Home of which she was a life governor and, for many years, organised collections in Beeston for the Nottingham General Hospital. Her work with the National Children's Home was continued by her daughter Marjorie.

Followers of the New Connexion were the first Methodist grouping - in fact the first Non-Conformist sect - to form in Beeston (in 1799). James Hudston, Edith's grandfather, came to Beeston with his wife Mary around 1807 from south-east Derbyshire and worked tirelessly for the Society as a Lay Preacher, all his life. An early chapel building they used had to be abandoned as numbers dwindled after the Wesleyans began to attract membership but, in 1836, they managed to open a new chapel on Chapel Street which continued, and was enlarged over the years, until it gradually became redundant following the merging of the New Connexion and other strands of Methodism, in 1907, to form the United Methodist Church. After that date, much of the chapel activities took place at the Willoughby Street chapel, although a Sunday School continued at Chapel Street for many years. The building was finally declared to redundant for chapel use and sold in 1947. It was demolished, along with Chapel Street as a whole, as part of The Square development in the 1960s.

Thanks to John & Marjorie's daughter Claire for offering the picture.

Suggestions for names and any other information are very welcome