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The annual Harvest Festival Sunday services were always well attended when villagers would give home grown produce such as fruit, flowers and vegetables as a 'thanksgiving'. Next evening, the produce was auctioned at the end of the thanksgiving.
The highlight of the Sunday school year was the anniversary time. This was annually held on Whitsuntide Sunday and repeated the following Sunday.
On Whit Sunday morning, Sunday school scholars assembled outside the chapel on Back Lane and formed a procession behind a horse and cart, upon which the chapel organ had been securely fastened. The procession then set off for nearby Hillstown, formerly known as New Palterton, about one and a half kilometers away.
Upon arrival they toured the streets, stopping every 100 metres or so to sing a hymn to the accompaniment of Mrs. Elsie Townsend on the chapel organ. She was perched precariously on a chair on the cart! Whilst the procession was making its way along the streets, there were other chapel members with collecting boxes going from door-to-door, the proceeds going to the chapel funds. These walkabouts around Hillstown were very exhausting, especially for the younger children and on the way back to Palterton, the very young and tired ones were given a ride on the cart. The following Sunday morning the procession walked around Palterton village in a similar manner. Timing was of the utmost importance at these processions because everybody had to be back home for dinner and to change their clothes for the Anniversary Service that commenced promptly at 2 p.m.  Prior to 1910, the services had been held in the stone barn at Elm Tree Farm. Since 1910, the afternoon and evening services on Anniversary Sundays were always held in the village school. The Primitive Methodist chapel was too small to accommodate congregation
and scholars. The village school was an ideal building and could easily be adapted for such occasions. | 
