Worcester Park History
An anniversary at St Mary’s by David Rymill
An anniversary at St Mary’s by David Rymill
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Since I drafted this article, it was announced that, in accordance with national Church of England guidance, all public services are being suspended at St Mary’s to reduce the risk of infection. The church, is, however, about much more than public worship, and St Mary’s aims to continue to play a role in the life of the community. The church building will be open for private prayer every morning except Mondays, and the Vicar, the Revd Theresa Ricketts, will be sending a prayer, readings and a sermon by email each week. If you would like to receive this, please contact her by email via the website www.cuddingtonparish.org.uk or by phone on 8337 4914. She would also be happy for anyone who has questions or concerns to contact her.
Plans are being made this year to celebrate the 125th anniversary of the opening of the present St Mary’s Church, Cuddington, at the top of The Avenue – although the plans have to be regarded as provisional at present, as we wait to see how the health situation develops.
This isn’t the 125th anniversary of there being a church in Cuddington – there was a stone church in the parish by about 1100, about two miles away in what is now Nonsuch Park, and there was probably a wooden church before that. Nor is it the 125th anniversary of the congregation, as that met for nearly 30 years in an Iron Church opened in 1867. It’s the 125th anniversary of the opening of the first stage of the present church building: the first services were held in the new church on 21st July 1895.
I have set myself the challenge of finding a photograph or document relevant to each of the 125 years, to form a timeline around the walls of the church. I’m planning to mention several members of the congregation who have gone on to full-time ministry, links with numerous charities in the UK and overseas, two visits by future Archbishops, and two operatic world premières.
I also want to feature some of the many people who have been christened or married in Cuddington, and I hope WPL readers will be able to help. Do you have photographs or memories of family events at St Mary’s, such as christenings or weddings? Or can you contribute photographs, cinefilms or recollections of church occasions you attended, such as church fairs, Rose Queen fêtes or parish outings, or group photographs – formal or informal – of youth groups, the choir or Young Wives, or of the many community organisations that have met in the church halls over the decades?
Please get in touch with me at David.Rymill1993@alumni.aber.ac.uk (please note the double letter l followed by a figure 1) or on 01962 868976 or (020) 8330 6563 if you can help. We will only display copies, so digital copies by email would be fine, or I will return originals after copying. If it proves unwise to arrange celebratory events in the church, I hope we can have an online exhibition, so please let me know if you have any objection to your contribution being used online.
Our illustrations show the earliest christening and wedding photographs taken at the church that we know of so far. One was taken at the christening of John Vickars on 5th June 1949. He is shown being held by his godmother Kathleen Freeman, who is standing with her husband Ron Freeman – they ran the drapers’ J E Freeman in Central Road – and their daughter Barbara. To the right are John’s parents, Alice and Harold Vickars, with their daughter Diana (now Garland), and on the far right is Mrs Vickars’s brother Charles Appleton (Mr Freeman and Mr Appleton were the godfathers).
The wedding photograph was taken when Anthony Kinnerly and Jean Robbins were married on 20th May 1950. In both cases, behind the family groups you can see the small entrance porch in the temporary west wall of the church, as constructed in 1895 – and as it remained until it was extended in 1959.
The earliest parish registers (held at Surrey History Centre) give an interesting insight into the varied community that the church served in its early years. Much of Cuddington was still farmland: two babies baptised at St Mary’s in the early years were children of cowmen at Coldharbour Farm (near Seaforth Gardens), Thomas, son of Charles and Elizabeth Harmes in 1898; and Ada, daughter of George and Ada Millard, the next year. The parish then extended across Stoneleigh and well beyond Nonsuch Park: another child baptised in 1899, Violet Maynard, was the daughter of Henry, a carter, and Matilda his wife, who lived at Cuddington Court Cottage – presumably associated with Cuddington Court Farm, where Sutton and Epsom Rugby Club is today.
From the Victorian houses in and around The Avenue, both ‘upstairs’ and ‘downstairs’ were represented: early weddings in the new church included that, in 1904, of Francis Ratcliffe and Kathleen MacInnes, butler and cook at Worcester Court (where Worcester Gardens is now), and William Hume-Rothery, son of a barrister at The Pines (later 45 The Avenue), was christened in 1899; he became the first professor in the department of metallurgy at Oxford in 1958. I also noticed the baptisms in 1910 of two children whose father’s occupation was listed as ‘author’ – but as I am running out of space I will save that for another time.
Whilst the plans may have to be revised as the health situation develops, the congregation currently hopes to begin the celebrations over the weekend of 11-12 July, with a traditional summer fete on Saturday 11th and a service to which people who have been married or baptised at St Mary's will be specially invited on Sunday 12th. We hope to have our anniversary displays on show from that weekend. We want the display to be a collaborative community exercise, so we plan to provide space for visitors to add more photographs and memories once it has been launched.
The plan is to keep the displays on show until November so they can be seen by visitors to two further special weekends: the nationwide Heritage Open Days during the weekend of 12-13 September, when we plan to have displays about the history of the church and of Cuddington in the 1890s, and the concluding celebratory weekend in November, marking the anniversary of the church’s consecration; a special service has been arranged for Sunday 22nd.
David.Rymill1993@alumni.aber.ac.uk
Plans are being made this year to celebrate the 125th anniversary of the opening of the present St Mary’s Church, Cuddington, at the top of The Avenue – although the plans have to be regarded as provisional at present, as we wait to see how the health situation develops.
This isn’t the 125th anniversary of there being a church in Cuddington – there was a stone church in the parish by about 1100, about two miles away in what is now Nonsuch Park, and there was probably a wooden church before that. Nor is it the 125th anniversary of the congregation, as that met for nearly 30 years in an Iron Church opened in 1867. It’s the 125th anniversary of the opening of the first stage of the present church building: the first services were held in the new church on 21st July 1895.
I have set myself the challenge of finding a photograph or document relevant to each of the 125 years, to form a timeline around the walls of the church. I’m planning to mention several members of the congregation who have gone on to full-time ministry, links with numerous charities in the UK and overseas, two visits by future Archbishops, and two operatic world premières.
I also want to feature some of the many people who have been christened or married in Cuddington, and I hope WPL readers will be able to help. Do you have photographs or memories of family events at St Mary’s, such as christenings or weddings? Or can you contribute photographs, cinefilms or recollections of church occasions you attended, such as church fairs, Rose Queen fêtes or parish outings, or group photographs – formal or informal – of youth groups, the choir or Young Wives, or of the many community organisations that have met in the church halls over the decades?
Please get in touch with me at David.Rymill1993@alumni.aber.ac.uk (please note the double letter l followed by a figure 1) or on 01962 868976 or (020) 8330 6563 if you can help. We will only display copies, so digital copies by email would be fine, or I will return originals after copying. If it proves unwise to arrange celebratory events in the church, I hope we can have an online exhibition, so please let me know if you have any objection to your contribution being used online.
Our illustrations show the earliest christening and wedding photographs taken at the church that we know of so far. One was taken at the christening of John Vickars on 5th June 1949. He is shown being held by his godmother Kathleen Freeman, who is standing with her husband Ron Freeman – they ran the drapers’ J E Freeman in Central Road – and their daughter Barbara. To the right are John’s parents, Alice and Harold Vickars, with their daughter Diana (now Garland), and on the far right is Mrs Vickars’s brother Charles Appleton (Mr Freeman and Mr Appleton were the godfathers).
The wedding photograph was taken when Anthony Kinnerly and Jean Robbins were married on 20th May 1950. In both cases, behind the family groups you can see the small entrance porch in the temporary west wall of the church, as constructed in 1895 – and as it remained until it was extended in 1959.
The earliest parish registers (held at Surrey History Centre) give an interesting insight into the varied community that the church served in its early years. Much of Cuddington was still farmland: two babies baptised at St Mary’s in the early years were children of cowmen at Coldharbour Farm (near Seaforth Gardens), Thomas, son of Charles and Elizabeth Harmes in 1898; and Ada, daughter of George and Ada Millard, the next year. The parish then extended across Stoneleigh and well beyond Nonsuch Park: another child baptised in 1899, Violet Maynard, was the daughter of Henry, a carter, and Matilda his wife, who lived at Cuddington Court Cottage – presumably associated with Cuddington Court Farm, where Sutton and Epsom Rugby Club is today.
From the Victorian houses in and around The Avenue, both ‘upstairs’ and ‘downstairs’ were represented: early weddings in the new church included that, in 1904, of Francis Ratcliffe and Kathleen MacInnes, butler and cook at Worcester Court (where Worcester Gardens is now), and William Hume-Rothery, son of a barrister at The Pines (later 45 The Avenue), was christened in 1899; he became the first professor in the department of metallurgy at Oxford in 1958. I also noticed the baptisms in 1910 of two children whose father’s occupation was listed as ‘author’ – but as I am running out of space I will save that for another time.
Whilst the plans may have to be revised as the health situation develops, the congregation currently hopes to begin the celebrations over the weekend of 11-12 July, with a traditional summer fete on Saturday 11th and a service to which people who have been married or baptised at St Mary's will be specially invited on Sunday 12th. We hope to have our anniversary displays on show from that weekend. We want the display to be a collaborative community exercise, so we plan to provide space for visitors to add more photographs and memories once it has been launched.
The plan is to keep the displays on show until November so they can be seen by visitors to two further special weekends: the nationwide Heritage Open Days during the weekend of 12-13 September, when we plan to have displays about the history of the church and of Cuddington in the 1890s, and the concluding celebratory weekend in November, marking the anniversary of the church’s consecration; a special service has been arranged for Sunday 22nd.
David.Rymill1993@alumni.aber.ac.uk