HISTORY OF THE PARISH
5: REBUILDING

At the end of the Second World War, St Mark's Church lay in ruins, with the congregation meeting for services in the Vicarage or the County School hall. As its Church Hall had been sold to St Andrew's, only the ruined site and the extensive grounds of the Vicarage remained. St Andrew's Church had sustained some slight damage, and its Church Hall had been destroyed by bombing.

At St Andrew's, the Reverend Richard Fox Cartwright succeeded Harold Roberts in March, 1946, and left at the end of 1951 to become Vicar of St Mary, Redcliffe, Bristol, and later the suffragan Bishop of Plymouth. The continuity of the St Andrew's tradition was well illustrated during Richard Cartwright's incumbency in the death of Margaret Parker in 1949. She had been present as a little girl at the laying of the foundation-stone of the church and at its consecration in 1872, and at the time of her death had worshipped regularly at St Andrew's for 77 years.

During the ministry of the Revd Herbert Grant Ockwell, who followed Richard Cartwright at St Andrew's in February, 1952, great progress was made in post-war reconstruction, spiritually as well as materially. A licence for the rebuilding of the parish hall was granted in May, 1953 and the foundation stone was laid by the Rt. Hon. John Boyd-Carpenter on 6th February 1954. The cost was estimated at £23,000 of which the War Damage Commission agreed to pay £17,000, leaving the church to find the balance of £6,000. It says much for the drive and enthusiasm of the congregation that the whole of the balance was eventually raised, chiefly by the simple expedient of collecting threepenny-bits. The new hall was opened by the Bishop of Southwark on 6th November 1954, and for years provided St Andrew's with an invaluable asset as a centre for social activities and a source of revenue for church funds. As the new parish hall could comfortably accommodate concerts, flower shows, dances and full theatrical performances by the St Andrew's Players, as well as clubs, Scouts, Wolf Cubs, Brownies and all kinds of meetings and parties, there was a revival of social activity. Church attendances also increased during this period and Herbert Ockwell was able to report in 1957 that the number of communicants on Sundays had risen to 250 and that the number at Easter 1957 was no less than 450: this was the peak of the post-war period. Essential repairs to St Andrew's in 1964-5 cost £9,188, most of which had to be raised by voluntary subscriptions, and sales of work.

The congregation of St Mark's, meanwhile, had had to wait for the Diocese to take the decision to rebuild their Church. This battle was fought and won by the Revd R.K. Haslam in the difficult post-war period. Funds were raised to build a Temporary Church just downhill from the ruined church, which was dedicated in May 1949. When the Revd Christopher Blair-Fish was instituted Vicar in 1955, the Bishop of Kingston gave him as a text for his ministry the word "Aedificare", meaning "Build! and build up!".

The cost of the Temporary Church had taken most of the proceeds of the earlier appeals, and by 1955 there was only £900 in hand. The architect, Romilly Craze FRIBA, and the quantity surveyors, Eric G. Lynde and Partners, fought a long and wearying battle with the War Damage Commission. It was established that the claim for reinstatement of the Church was for £78,000, and not £30,000 as originally proposed by them for a smaller substitute building. Gift Days were held twice a year, raising as much as £1,200 in one weekend. Bricks and tiles were sold, and special viewing days held when people were asked to contribute to the rebuilding. Neighbouring parishes and local businesses also contributed, and the congregation took part in the traditional collecting of threepenny-bits. The total cost of restoration was £99,565.

The architect Romilly Craze, and the Vicar, Canon Blair-Fish, wrote their own account of the planning of the new church. By 1960 the rebuilding was complete. On Friday 30th September 1960, the Bishop of Southwark reconsecrated St Mark's, and twenty years after its destruction, on Sunday 2nd October, celebrated Holy Communion in the new church. St Mark's had its identity back, and many of the current congregation still remember those difficult years with feeling. The old Temporary Church became the Church Hall. Later, the Victorian Vicarage was demolished. The front part of the garden was sold to build a block of flats called Assheton-Bennett House, while a new Vicarage on a much smaller scale was built off Church Hill Road. Another major project was the rebuilding of the old church schools on a new site in Maple Road in 1972.

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