Ronald Nesbitt

Ronald Nesbitt was the newly-appointed secretary for the mission circuit in Weatherfield in April 1966 replacing Emily Nugent who had moved to Harrogate to nurse her ailing father.

His reputation preceeded him as a dour man with an eye for detail. A friend of Minnie Caldwell who worked at the mission on Emma Street claimed that she had almost lost his job when he criticised her for not getting someone in to see to the problematic chimney on the premises. His opponent at the Glad Tidings Mission Hall was Ena Sharples who had easily overcome Miss Nugent and the fussy Leonard Swindley when they had tried to control her but she met her match in Nesbitt. They first encountered each other when he came looking for her and was told that she was in the Rovers Return Inn. He sternly told her that he didn't expect to find one of his caretakers in such an establishment and their working relationship went downhill from that unpromising start.

Nesbitt employed Fairclough and Booth to undertake a thorough stuctural survey of the mission. The residents were curious as to what was taking place and joined Jerry Booth as started to investigate the boards on the stage. Jed Stone couldn't resist larking about on the stage and he, Stan Ogden and Dennis Tanner got pub relief manager Brenda Riley to join in, miming a striptease which hurriedly stopped as Nesbitt entered the hall. He commented acidly that it wasn't just the floorboards which were rotten but Brenda retorted that a sense of humour was well worth having.

The survey involved taking up the floorboards in the Vestry and this revealed that work would be needed which would take three weeks to complete. Offering no alternative accomodation to Ena, Nesbitt told her to vacate the premises. She tried to fight back but he told her she had no choice. She voiced her fears that when the work was complete, she would come back to find the locks changed as Nesbitt didn't approve of her morals and blamed her for the decline of those of the street residents but he pompously told her that he couldn't discuss committee deliberations with her. A few weeks later, Ruth Winter was appointed to supervise Ena's work and the old lady resigned on the spot and temporarily left her home again.