THESE young people were collecting for foreign missions on behalf of the Cross Hills Wesleyan Methodist Church. Several are wearing costumes suggesting natives of the countries they were trying to convert.

The photograph was supplied by the late Edith Brown, who stands fourth from the right. She thought the date was about 1909, and remembered that the minister’s daughter was in charge, adding “I was shocked to see she used a camera on a Sunday!”

Collecting for worthy causes was as varied in 1909 as it is now. Steeton Wesleyans’ appeal for home missions raised £11 16s, while the Keighley Sunday Circle’s sale of work paid off a £35 debt on their meeting-place.

A ‘Bachelors’ Effort’ at Temple Street Wesleyan School attracted 500 to a meat tea and 700 to a concert which included a ‘bachelors’ choir’ and a humorous Dickensian sketch, raising £80 for the Deaconess Fund.

Meanwhile the Town Mission to the Sick and Needy used the proceeds of its fundraising to provide a tea in the Temperance Hall for 80 poor mothers and 30 husbands, entertained by the Albert Street Baptist Chapel Choir.