Castle Purchase

Reference to the Urban Council’s impending purchase of the Castle was made by the Vicar, the Rev G.F.Braithwaite, in his sermon at the Parish Church on Sunday evening.

The Vicar declared that idolatry was by no means out of fashion. Allegiance was still paid to the great gods, Mammon and Pleasure.

“Material prosperity and social betterment,” the vicar pointed out, “are not the only deities to which we owe homage. Cultural and spiritual development have an urgent claim upon us.

For example the acquisition of Conisbrough Castle by the local Council has been questioned on the grounds of the castle being of ‘no asset.’ Ought we to reduce the value of everything to £ s d. ? Have history and tradition played no part in social revolution? The bad old days were not altogether bad. Christian tradition in Conisbrough was not solely the product of the modern social tendency. And, in any case, the Castle and Church of their ancient town put Conisbrough on the map, and made a pleasant oasis in the surrounding desert of industrialism.

It was all too easy to scrap ancient values and replace them by something harsher and cruder. “By all means letters reach out for higher things, but let us not forget the worth of the past. It can teach us much,” the Vicar declared.