Church rooms (1900)

Post date: Feb 16, 2012 5:46:5 PM

Extract from Parish magazine of September 1900

The Vicar begs to apologise for the lateness of the issue of the Parish Magazine of two months in sucession. Last month it was due to his absence and a slight misunderstanding. This month, it was chiefly due to a wish to be in a position to announce the good news that " Parish Church Rooms" are shortly to be built.

The idea of trying to build a place which might be used not only for classes, meetings and entertainments, in connection with the work of the Church in the parish, but also under proper conditions for other purposes, has been in the Vicar's mind for a long time. About a year ago he received promises of substantial support from two or three of the leading parishioners whom he then approached on the subject. Other promises have since been made, and last week the Vicar received two donations which made up somewhat more than the cost of the actual building, which will come probably (for the final estimates have not yet come to hand) to £350 or £360. The means of warming the room and furnishing it with a stage,tables, chairs, forms, curtains, &c., will cost, if well done, a further £50 or £60, which the Vicar hopes to be able to raise without making a public appeal. He thinks, and he feels warranted in thinking, that in a place like Wateringbury a building of this kind can be raised without making a public appeal and having collecting cards and holding bazaars and the like. There is a certain advantage in such paraphernalia: those means of raising money serve sometimes also to rouse public enthusiasm. But in this case public enthusiasm might raise false expectations. The rooms will certainly not revolutionise the life of the village; but there is no doubt they will be very useful. They will be a great relief to the Vicarage, where hitherto all classes and many meetings have been held—this his been rather rough upon the Vicar's household. They will be a relief also to the schools, which as time goes on are becoming, by reason of the more exacting requirements of the Board of Education, less and less suitable for entertainments of any kind. They will enable the Vicar to start one or two things which, for want of such a home, have been put off, such as a Bible Class for Men, an extra Mothers' Meeting, and a Band of Hope for children. They will, under certain conditions, be at the disposal of other people for uses not connected with the church. It is hoped that they will be very useful in hopping-time; and they will also enable Wateringbury to take its proper place as one of the two chief centres of the rural deanery of North Mailing.

It is proposed that the building consist of two rooms, a hall and a class-room: the hall will measure 35 feet by 22, and the class-room, which will be so placed as to serve as a 'green-room' to the hall, will measure 20 feet by 14. It is to be placed in the Vicarage garden, near the gates where the coffee-stall is temporarily located. It will be built of the Wire-wove Waterproof Roofing Co.'s¹ materials, the materials of which the Barming Mission Room and the Bearsted Golf Club House are built, lighted by gas, and probably warmed with Wright's Condensing Gas Stoves, such as are used in the Mansion House, Haymarket Theatre, G.P.O., Dulwich Parish Church Rooms, and many public buildings in London and elsewhere. The building will have its own entrance from the road, and the entrances to both rooms will be cut off from communication with the Vicarage grounds.

The building will be technically a tenant's fixture—to put up a brick building upon Vicarage ground would be to saddle the incumbent perpetually with responsibility for repairs —but it will have the nature of a permanent building of the character of a tiled and weather-boarded structure. The Vicar hoped to be able to sell the site to trustees and vest the building in their hands, placing the management in the hands of the Vicar and one or two others nominated from time to time by the trustees ; but the Ecclesiastical Commissioners will not permit the sale of the site under any conditions whatever. It is possible that the site may be leased, and the matter is still under consideration. The building of the rooms however need not be delayed for a final settlement of these points, whereby it is hoped that its usefulness will never be unfavourably affected.

To meet the annual cost of warming, lighting, and cleaning the rooms, it is hoped that the parishioners generally will be willing to give a small annual subscription. But this is not asked for just it present.

Next month it was reported

WATERINGBURY PARISH CHURCH ROOMS.

The scheme is progressing. The Vicar is truly grateful for the support which has been readily and generously accorded. The following is the first List of Donors :—

We are confident that others will make up the necessary amount. The Vicar has been waiting, and waiting in vain, for the final estimates. In default of them it is difficult to guess the exact amount required; but a very careful revision of the figures available suggests that we are still short of that amount by between £50 and £60, if the Rooms are to be from the start anything like properly equipped for their purposes. The Vicar proposes, immediately the plans and estimates come to hand, to place them before a meeting of the donors for their suggestions or approval.

At that meeting he hopes to be in a position to submit proposals for the settlement and management of the rooms. He believes that a difficulty raised by the fact of the site being on Vicarage property can be overcome. The matter is under legal consideration. All these matters cause unfortunate delay; but there is still reasonable expectation that the building will be ready for use before Christmas. Further donations will be acknowledged in the Magazine.