ABSTRACT

A number of more permanent tributes were deemed appropriate by church members and others whose lives she had affected, especially in her last three churches. The walls of the chapel at Chulmleigh have long been adorned by several plaques and the church members there decided, one month after Elsie’s death, that they wanted to commemorate her by adding another in marble and brass. Particular friends may wonder whether Elsie herself would entirely approve of this commemoration, yet she knew the sincerity of these West Country people’s feelings. The plaque is situated on the wall to the left of the chapel entrance and it reads:

The Congregational church members at Castle Gate, Nottingham DOVRFKRVHWRKRQRXUWKHLUIULHQGDQGÀUVWPLQLVWHUEXWLQDGLIIHUHQW way. At the church meeting in September 1991 they decided to consult, with the Congregational Federation, about commissioning a portrait of Elsie to be hung on the wall of the sanctuary there. Some years earlier a portrait of Reginald Cleaves had been painted by Roy Porter and this had been hung in the church building in Nottingham. Porter was again commissioned and his painting of Elsie was duly placed there.2 Although Elsie, and the modest Cleaves too, may have been embarrassed at the thought of their likenesses hanging

in the church (they did not seek to become objects of worship), it is not inappropriate that these portraits should grace the walls somewhere at Castle Gate where the Congregational Federation KDVLWVRIÀFHV7KUHH\HDUVEHIRUHKHUGHDWK(OVLHKDGZULWWHQ¶,DP proud of my own now small denomination, that has chosen to remain Congregational and independent’.3 That pride was mutual. Her fellow Congregationalists, not all uncritically, held her in the highest esteem and felt for her a deep gratitude and love. Visitors to Castle Gate may gaze on her likeness but miss her greeting, ‘Welcome, good people’.