For some years in the early part of the 21 st century, Rev John Titlow, a URC minister had organised meetings with a transport theme under the title of The Uttoxeter Transport Circle. Meetings were held in the United Reform Church and topics covered ranged from canals through buses to railways. In 2013 John retired from ministry and moved to the London area and the meetings ended. However, there was £94 in the “pot” and John offered this to a small group of us on the proviso that we used to fund speakers for transport-themed meetings. As the new “committee” (as we became) comprised solely Anglicans, we decided
to hold meetings in St Mary’s C of E church and as we were all railway enthusiasts we decided to major on railway themed topics. This seemed to guide us quite naturally into calling the meetings “Chuffers in Church”.
For insurance purposes, we operate under the auspices of a group known as "St Mary's Fun Raisers";. Despite that, there are no religious aspects or connotations to the presentations. It is simply that the venue is in St Mary's Parish Church in Uttoxeter and we like the alliterative title. We have been at this venue for over twelve years now.
There are normally five presentations in a year, and they are organised by a small group of four of us, one of whom is member of the clergy and like so many clerics, is a railway enthusiast and usually introduces the evening. The presentations are on a Tuesday evening starting at 7.30pm and are usually around early-March, late-April, late-June, late-September, and mid-November. The 2026 programme is already underway, and details are provided in the calendar on the website.
There is no charge for entry, but we do say that donations are welcome. After deducting any speaker’s expenses, any remaining donations collected are passed to the church to defray the costs of heating and lighting.
On the evening of presentations, the church is open from 6.30pm for setting up etc. We have a screen, speakers, laptop, digital projector and microphones. If speakers want to bring any of their own equipment that's fine but most presenters simply provide us with a memory stick, usually with photographs etc. on PowerPoint or similar. If the speaker wishes, they can have a table at the back of the church to display any relevant materials. Quite often there are second-hand railway books and/or magazines for sale on the night at bargain prices.
We normally break at a convenient point about 45-50 minutes into the presentation. Tea/coffee and cake are then available free of charge during a 20-minute break, and the event then continues until around 9.30pm.
Whilst many speakers are locally based, we have had the pleasure of listening to some well known figures in the railway world including the late Dr Les Nixon (railway photographer) Dave Coxon (Secretary Railway Correspondence and Travel Society East Midlands Branch) Derek Huntriss (railway author) Simon Dewey (railway author) and Robin Mathams (custodian of the Moseley Railway Archive) amongst others.
Topics range from steam to modern traction and have included presentations on railway webcams, overseas railways, railway accidents, railway engineers, railway posters, railway movie making, new-builds and heritage railways, to name but a few.
If railways are your “thing”, come and join us at our next presentation. See our calendar for details of the next event.