St. Mary's Church Lewisham - History : simplebooklet.com

'Ladywell'

The medieval churches

The fifteenth century church

The building of the tower

Troubled times

George Stanhope and the Vicarage

The new church

The 1830 fire The 1881 remodelling

The chancel

St. Mary's Parish in 1902

Restoration of the tower in 1907

The Lady Chapel

The re-ordering 1995

Re-roofing

Interior Monuments

Churchyard Vaults and Tombs

The tower

Church silver

The stained glass windows

Choir and organ

Church Extension 1902

Vicars of Lewisham

Further reading and sources

Contents click on headings to visit page

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Dedicated to the congregations of St. Mary the Virgin, Lewisham, and the Abbey Church of St. Peter and St. Mary, Ghent

Copyright Julian Watson All rights reserved. No part of this book may be copied or otherwise reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the author.

First published in Great Britain by St. Mary’s Church FCC, 346 Lewisham High Street London, SE13 6LE. 2004

Revised edition 2017

ISBN 978-1-5272-1303-6

Cover picture

Lewisham Church, Kent. Lithograph by Day and Haghe, 1820. A view from the old Ladywell Bridge over Ladywell Fields. The footbridge and the ford for wheeled vehicles are clearly with St. Mary’s in the background. A new stone bridge was begun in 1830.

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Nee Lushington who died in 1797 aged 25. Her mother Paulina Commissioned John Flaxman, the eminent sculptor, to create the monument and William Hayley, an eminent poet, to write the verse. Hayley's son Thomas, a teenager, was fatally ill while his father composed the poem. William and Paulina Lushington lived at Camden Place, Chislehurst and had a town house in Devonshire Street. William was the British agent in Grenada and had plantations in Trinidad and Mustique. William and Paulina married in Calcutta where Mary was baptised.

Lushington

Poem by William Hayley on the Lushington tomb Blame not, ye calm observers of distress, A mother sorrowing to a fond excess! True filial excellence, of life so brief, Claims the full tribute of no common grief: Here friendship, form’d by nature’s sweetest tie, And hallow’d e’en by Heaven’s approving eye, Laments the dearest joys, affection gave, Lost in the darkness of a daughter’s grave. Pity absolves the Parent thus o’ercome; Her reason crush’d, her resignation dumb! No human comforters such pangs controul, But Seraphs whisper to the mourner’s soul; ‘Raise thy sunk eye to her, in sainted rest, Whose beauty charm’d thee, whose perfection blest Whose voice, now joining the seraphic quire, To thee was soothing as devotion’s lyre! See her exalted from the mists of earth, To radiant recompense for spotless worth! And let her merit (still thy graceful pride) Prove, to the Throne of Truth, her Parent’s guide.

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Innes

Memorial to Joseph Innes Who died in Jamaica in 1779. Little is known about him except that he was the nephew of William Innes, a Blackheath resident, who was a leading West India merchant and Captain of the Blackheath Golf Club.

William Innes with his Caddy playing golf on Blackheath.

Hattecliffe

A brass memorial to George Hattecliffe (died 1514), son of William Hattcliffe of Catford. A later William Hatcliffe (died 1620) founded the Hatcliffe Almshouses in Catford. The Hatcliffe and Colfe almshouse charities were merged and the present modern almshouses are opposite this church. The brass figure disappeared long before the end of the 19th century – only the inscription remains.

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Colfe

Simple memorial to the remarkable Margaret Colfe, née Hollard or Holland (both spellings were used by her family), widow of Jasper Valentine a Lewisham tanner. She and Jasper had a son, RichardValentine. Margaret died in 1643

Monument to Ann Dick Petrie, daughter of Margaret Petrie, whose monument can be found in a similar position in the South gallery. Sculptered by Karel Van Poucke of Ghent in Flanders. Installed by Thomas banks in 1790.

Memorial to Margaret Petrie, widow of Rev Robert Pertrie, 1795. The monument to their daughter, Ann, can be found in a similar position in the North gallery. A photograph of this monument was exhibited at the Thomas Banks bi-centennial exhibition at Sir John Soane’s Museum 2005.

Petrie

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Memorial to Sir Henry Watson Parker. Youngest son of Thomas Watson Parker of Lewisham House. Sir Henry was Principle Secretary to the colony of new South Wales, Australia.

A Memorial to the entire Parker family can be seen in the North Gallery.

Henry Parker

John Thackeray 1776 - 1851 was a wealthy benefactor to Lewisham and Christ Hospital where he went to school. In 1840 he built and endowed Thackeray’s almshouses in order to provide rest for ‘Six aged females’. Panels at the base of the monument depict the almshouses and Christ Hospital. His home was ‘The Priory’ a large house built in the gothic style with extensive gardens, now the site of the Seventh Day Adventist Church, 428 Lewisham High Street.

The photograph of ‘The Priory’ shows the river which ran along the front of the house and the length of the High street, unintentionally drained when a sewer was built.

Thackeray

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Rev. George Stanhope Became Vicar of Lewisham in 1689 aged 29. He remained Vicar until his death in 1728. He rebuilt the Vicarage at his own cost in 1692/3. He was also Vicar of St Nicholas Church, Deptford (1702-1728) and also Dean of Canterbury, 1703-1728.

Stanhope

The monument has the following inscription

In memory

Of the very Rev George Stanhope D.D.

38 years Vicar of this Parish and 26 of

The neighbouring Church of Deptford

Dean of Canterbury A.D. 1703

And thrice Prolucutor of the Lower House

Of Convocation.

Whose piety was real and national

His charity great and universal

Fruitful in acts of mercy and in all good works.

His learning was elegant and comprehensive

His conversation polite and delicate.

Grave without Preciseness, Facetious without Levity

The good Christian and solid Divine

And the fine gentleman

In him were happily united.

Who, tho’ amply qualified for the Highest

Honours of his Sacred Function

yet was content with only Deserving them

In his Pastoral office a pattern to his people

And to all who shall succeed him in ye care of them.

His Discourses from the Pulpit

Were equally pleasing and profitable

A beautiful intermixture of ye clearest Reasoning

With ye purest Diction

Attended with all the Graces of just Elocution

As his works from ye Press have spoke ye Praises

Of his happy Genius, his love of God and man

For which Generations to come

Will bless his Memory

He was born March ye 5

He died March ye 18, 1727

Aged 68 years.

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Thomas Parker

Thomas Watson Parker and his family lived in Lewisham House which stood on the corner of Ladywell Road and the High Street opposite the former Vicarage (now Ladywell House). Lewisham House was demolished in 1894. A memorial to his 5th son, Sir Henry Watson Parker can be found at the West end of the church.

The old fire station, the old police station, the Coroner’s Court and shops were built on the site of the house and garden but part of the garden was used to enlarge the churchyard in 1817.

Lewisham House, built 1680 demolished 1894. Originally the home of Sir John and Anne Lethuillier, a Huguenot family. Sam Pepys said of her ‘Our noble fat brave lady in our parish, that I and my wife admire so.’

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The first English book on dentistry, The Operator for the Teeth, by Englishman Charles Allen, was published in 1685; however, no other works on English dentistry were published until Thomas Berdmore, dentist to King George III, published his treatise on dental disorders and deformities, in 1768. In 1771 English surgeon John Hunter, famed as the father of modern surgery, published The Natural History of the Human Teeth, an outstanding text on dental anatomy. In 1856 English dentist Sir John Tomes led the formation of the first dental organization in England, the Odontological Society. It was through the activity of this group that the Royal Dental Hospital of London was established in 1858.

making longbows and arrows but they could not be planted in fields as they were poisonous to cattle. And so they were planted in churchyards which would also keep passing drovers out. For early Christians the tree symbolised everlasting life and the patient wait for the Resurrection. Edward I decreed that yews should be planted to protect the entrance of churches, Being toxic they are considered trees of death.

Parkinson

The Churchyard, Vaults and Tombs

John Parkinson was a celebrated dentist living in London with a country retreat at Langley Lodge, Lewisham. He died in Oct 1840, the year the reclining dentist’s chair had been invented. An entry can be found in St.Mary’s burial register and his death was also recorded in the ‘Gentleman’s Magazine’.

The guild that had united the barbers and surgeons was dissolved in 1745, with the surgeons going their own way. Some barbers continued their dental ministrations and were designated “tooth drawers.” A second group, referred to themselves as “dentists,” while those who did all manner of dentistry were called “operators for the teeth.”

YEW TREES

The trees which line this path are evergreen Yews (Taxus baccata). The Yew was planted in places of burial for centuries and there are many explanations for this: they have particularly strong and durable wood and were needed in medieval times for

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1771-1841 Elise Hubert Desvignes (Diamond Merchant)

1804-1883 Peter Hubert Desvignes (Architect, inventor and musician)

1836-1910 Peter Hubert Desvignes (surgeon)

The Desivignes family were originally from France before the French Revolution, and had spent some time in Constantinople. Peter Hubert Desvignes, architect, also developed designs for a Zoetrope a device for producing moving images. In 1835 he took part in a competition to design a new building for the British Houses of Parliament.

The Desvignes Family Vault

The Desvignes family vault dates from the mid C19th, and is an elaborate stone and granite chest tomb on a large brick vault. It was designed by architect Peter Hubert Desvignes. They were probably the most important family to live in Hither Green. They owned both Hither Green Lodge and Wilderness House which was their principal residence from 1849-1892

He also received the commission to redesign the Liechtenstein palace in Vienna in the Neo-Rococo style, a task that occupied him from at least 1837 until around 1849. His redesign marks not only the highpoint of his career, but is believed to be the most elaborate and ambitious design projects to be implemented in the nineteenth century. The remodelling was the first in the Rococo Revival style in Vienna and is considered the most important of its kind.

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Ann’s brother, Joshua Cristall became a founder member of the Society of Painters in Water Colours in 1804. Ann and Joshua were very close. They ‘studied together as children, and hand in hand did they daily walk to London and back for their schooling when the family lived at Rotherhithe’

In 1795 Ann Cristall's Poetical Sketches, published by Joseph Johnson. The poems were often melancholic pieces and mostly concerned with nature. Contemporary reviewers criticized her technical imperfections but praised her ‘genius, and warmth of imagination’.

Very little is known about Ann Cristall's later life, and she appears to have dropped out of intellectual circles after the 1790s. She seems not to have married and is listed under her own name in A Biographical Dictionary of the Living Authors of Great Britain and Ireland (1816).

Ann Batten Cristall 1769 - 1848, poet, was born in Penzance. One of four children of Alexander Cristall of Monifieth, near Dundee, in Scotland. A mariner and later maker of sails, masts, and blocks with yards at Fowey and Penzance in Cornwall and later at Rotherhithe with his second wife, Elizabeth, the daughter of John Batten, a Penzance merchant.

When Ann was young, the family moved to London and later to Blackheath. Alexander Cristall apparently had a jealous disposition and family life was unpleasant when he was ashore. He also had a ‘dread of the arts’, but Elizabeth was a ‘woman of education and taste’ and appears to have had a significant influence on the artistic development of her children.

Cristall

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ELEGY

WANDER, my troubled soul, sigh 'mid the night thy pain,

While from my cloud-hung brow stream showers of briny rain;

My spirit flies the earth, the darkest gloom pervades,

Hovers around the dead, and mingles with the shades.

O! friend of my breast! thou'rt entomb'd within my heart,

I still to thee alone my inmost thoughts impart;

Solac'd no more by thee, vain is the power of song,

Sighs check each tuneful lay, and murmuring glide along.

Thou wert unto my soul what the sun is to my sight,

But thou art set in death, and I am lost in night;

All nature seems a void of element'ry strife,

Where the soul is all cloud, and fraught with pain all life.

When near thy faithful breast I heeded not the storm,

Nor thought of wasting time, nor death's consuming worm;

Thy genius woke my thought, as oft we stray'd alone,

And rais'd me to that heaven to which thou now art flown.

Silent oft I mourn, sad wandering 'mid the gloom,

Or on the sea-beat shore I weep my bitter doom;

To thee, among the bless'd, my feeble soul would soar,

And 'mid the starry spheres th' Almighty Pow'r adore.

Ann Batten Cristall

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Besides this, from 1856, he encouraged interest inentomology among the wider public by holding weekly 'open evenings' at his house. Anyone over the age of 14 could freely visit Mountsfield on such evenings, perhaps to have a specimen identified; to view his collection; or simply to learn more about entomology from Stainton himself, or other guests who may have been present.

Henry Tibbats Stainton (1822-1892) was an entymologist, educated at Kings College London. He was the author of The Manual of British Butterflies and Moths (1857-59). He was a very wealthy man and his house in Lewisham, ‘Mountsfield’, was one of Lewisham’s most substantial houses set in its own park, now known as Mountsield Park.

Stainton

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Ebenezer Blackwell (1731-1782) Lives at ‘The Limes’ in Lewisham High Street. A close friend of John and Charles Wesley, he was a partner in Martin’s Bank. He married Mary Eden the niece of Reverend William Louth, the Vicar of Lewisham and was Treasurer of St.Mary’s Church at the time of the rebuilding 1774-1777.

Originally there were copper inscriptions on the obelisk but unfortunately these were stolen in the 19th century and not replaced. He and his wife Elizabeth also frequently hosted Wesley at ‘The Limes’ The affection of Charles for the Blackwells is evident in the extended funeral hymns he wrote for both of them.

Ebenezer Blackwell was one of John Wesley’s most trusted friends from as early as 1739. Blackwell helped finance many of Wesley’s charitable efforts.

Blackwell

‘The Limes’ with its extensive garden was one of the largest houses in the High Street The house was demolished in 1894 and St Saviour's Roman Catholic Church built on the site in 1909.

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Gray

JOHN EDWARD GRAY(1800-1875), English naturalist, born at Walsall, Staffordshire. He began his zoological career by volunteering to collect insects for the British Museum at age 15. He officially joined the Zoological Department in 1824 to help catalogue the reptile collection. In 1840 he was appointed as Keeper of Zoology, which he continued for 35 years, publishing well over 1000 papers. He named many marine species. Within a few years of his appointment he was responsible for creating the largest and most complete zoological collection in the world. Although seized with paralysis in 1870, he continued to discharge the functions of keeper of zoology.

His interests were not confined to natural history only, for he took an active part in questions of public importance of his day, such as slave emancipation, prison discipline, abolition of imprisonment for debt, sanitary and municipal organizations, the decimal system, public education. Gray was also interested in postage stamps on 1 May 1840, the day the Penny Black first went on sale, he purchased several with the intent to save them, thus making him the world's first known stamp collector.

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Ephraim How and his son John moved from Chingford in 1709 They set up a successful and productive cutlery factory. They standardised their designs, employed a large workforce and harnessed local water power, They owned a mill in the hamlet of Southend in the South of the parish of Lewisham where the Homebase pond is now.

They sold from their shop on Saffron Hill near Clerkenwell in London. Ephraim How became master of the Worshipful Company of Cutlers in 1706

This set of knife and fork made of ivory, silver and steel are made in Britain in ca. 1698. The ivory handles are decorated in stained red and green ivory with piqué work of floral and arabesque designs. The blade is inscribed with the name of Ricard Rider, which is almost certainly the name of the owner. The cutler's mark of a dagger is probably that of Ephraim How.

How

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No titled birth hadst thou to boast,

Son of the desert, Fortune’s child,

Yet not by frowning fortune cross’d

The Muses on thy cradled smil’d.

Now a cold tenant dost thou lie

Of this dark cell; all hushed his song;

While Friendship bends with streaming eye,

As by the grave she wends along,

On the cold clay lets fall a holy tear,

And cries, though mute, there is a poet here!

Thomas Dermody 1775 - 1802 was born in Ennis. He was scholarly but lived hard, and made little of his life. He spent some time as a soldier. He had the genius of a poet, and wrote fairly good poetry; but his genius was not enough. He lived for 27 years, half his life a promising boy and half a ne'er-do-well. His promise brought him generous patrons in his early days in Ireland, but he scorned the hand that fed him, denied the friends who would have nursed his genius, and ran away to England to keep bad company. Friend after friend he gained and lost. Patron after patron he abused. They clothed and cleaned him and made him presentable, but he would drink himself to nakedness and rags and behave like a brute. Such from day to day and year to year was his life, and in the end he drank himself

to death and perished in a miserable cottage near Lewisham. He was filled with conceit and a slave to his desires, but the lines that are fading away on the stone above his grave show that he was a poet. Wikipedia®

Dermondy

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The Tower

1471 Plans to build the tower were drawn up. The originator of the plan seems to have been one William Sprigg, who in 1471 desire that his tenements with their appurtenances situated in East Greenwich should be sold, and the money "disposed toward the building of the bell tower in the churchyard of Lewesham." Money from wills and bequests followed over the next 14 years.

1512 The tower was completed following a bequest from William Batt of to making the "vice," or stairway.

1517 John Francis left £3-6-8 to buy a bell. Thereafter the church accounts noted several contributions to new bells and to the bell frame.

1552 Record of 4 bells.

1743 A bell was cast or recast.

1766 A new ring of 8 bells was cast by Lester & Pack at Whitechapel. The College Youths rang the first peals on the new bells, Bob Major on Sat. 8 Mar 1766, and Treble Bob Major on Sun 16 Mar 1766. There was some controversy in a local newspaper where there was a claim that the College Youths received a sum of money for opening the bells, which they denied.

1774 Rebuilding started on the church and tower by George Gibson, Junior, architect.

1777 Rebuilding was completed and the first Sunday of its opening was 7 Sept 1777. On the second Sunday since the reopening of the new church, part of the east side collapsed, hurting just one lady parishioner. As it was considered (in the Kentish Gazette) that the raised tower was too weak to bear the ringing of the bells, it was decided to sell 5 of the bells to raise money for the alteration of the church. In the event the opposite happened and the whole ring was remodelled into a heavier one with the addition of a new tenor and the 6th recast acting as the new 5th. The 7th was recast the previous year to form the new 6th.

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1812 A clock was supplied by Moore of Clerkenwell with two 5 ft dials.

1819 Treble and 3rd recast by Thomas Mears.

1859 The 4th was recast by John Warner & Sons.

1888 The Vestry noted that "the bell" required rehanging, although it is not clear which bell, or whether it referred to all of them.

1892 Two peal boards were dedicated on 19 Mar 1892 commemorating the consecration of Dr Legge as Bishop of Lichfield, and the other of the induction of Rev. Samuel Bickersteth as his successor as Vicar of Lewisham.

1893 The bells had fallen into a poor state of repair. An appeal was launched to restore the bells. Money was raised for the restoration, but the plan to augment the bells never went ahead. The 7th had become cracked in the crown and was recast by John Taylor with the date 1893 inscribed on the bell.

1894 All the bells were rehung in a new frame on one level, which was an improvement on the earlier frame which had been of oak and laid the bells out on two levels. The bells were rededicated on Sat 24 Mar by the Bishop of Southwark.

1896 The 2nd had become cracked and was recast by John Taylor. Whilst the bell was cast in 1896 on 27 Jan, the inscription on the bell says 1895.

1950 The bells were rehung on ball bearings by Mears & Stainbank. It seems certain that the bells never left the tower.

1991 The tower roof was repaired.

This 4 min video shows the entire interior of the tower with its rooms. It includes stored organ pipes, the 1812 clock mechanism, pendulum, ringing chamber, bells and even what could be the remains of the Victorian air condition system.

The Felstead Database

contains the dates and details of peals rung at St.Mary’s from 8th March 1776 until 5th April 2003

Source: Love's guide to the church bells of Kent

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Church Silver on loan to the Victoria & Albert Museum

Flagon English. 1646

Inscription:

‘Given to the Parish Church of Lewisham at Easter A.D.1686

Alms Dish, in Gothic style, Silver-gilt, made by John Hardman and Co, probably designed by A.W.N. Pugin, 1864-1865. Pugin probably designed this dish for Henry Drummond of Albury Park in Surrey, for whom he worked in 1848 and 1851. However, it was made after Pugin’s death. It recalls brass dishes exported from Nuremberg in the 16th century. The church acquired the dish in 1885, and the engraved arms are those of the diocese of Rochester

Communion Cup - English, 1684 Inscribed ‘Given to the Parish Church of Lewisham at Easter A.D.1686’

This dish was used in Russian Orthodox worship to hold the consecrated bread distributed in the Eucharist. Its centre is engraved with Christ as the sacrificial victim between two angels. The inscriptions are in Old Church Slavonic, the liturgical language of the Russian church. Silver, parcel-gilt, Moscow, 1688-9

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The stained glass windows by A.L.Wilkinson were installed between 1952 and 1954. The son of Horace Wilkinson, also an artist working in stained glass. Alfred trained at St Martin's School of Art in London before working with his father from 1920 until 1939 in London. Alfred Wilkinson was subsequently based at several addresses in London, Hertfordshire and Essex, and also designed for G. King & Son of Norwich.

Further reading Joyce Little, Stained Glass Marks and Monograms (London: National Association of Decorative and Fine Art Societies, 2002), p. 129.

She writes that her great aunt has recorded "While in London Dorothy and I met Alfred Wilkinson and saw his Design Studio and also the workshop of stained glass. Later, we visited an old church in Billingsgate "St. Magnus The Martyr" in which some of the windows from Alfred's works had newly replaced windows damaged in the war. They were circular and depicted a working man's trade - or union such as carpenter and cooper."

Stained glass windows

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Choir and Organ

In 1521 Stephen Colman left the residue of his goods towards the purchase of a ‘payre of organys’ and in 1552 they appear in the inventory of the church goods. When the church was taken down in 1774, arrangements were made for the organ’s safe custody. Samuel Spencer in about 1790 presented the church with a much larger instrument. Later this was replaced by another, erected by public subscription. This, which stood like its two predecessors in the western gallery, was removed with the gallery in 1881.

By 1882 The West Gallery had been removed and a new three manual organ was built by Brindley and Foster in 1913 for £150 and placed in the North transept of the new chancel. A J French, the Vicar’s warden writes; ‘it suffers like so many organs which are in chancels from its position the full sound of some of its pipes being somewhat stifled by the chancel arch probably a division of the pipes and their distribution to make two organs one on each side of the chancel would be a very great improvement.’

Plans for proposed new west end gallery 1840

The Chancel, with the Brindley & Foster organ in the north transept. The organ console positioned below the pipework. Easter day 1931.

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St. Mary's musical tradition has been maintained over the years by successive Choir Masters, Colin Howard, David Kemp, James Thomas, Chris Eva, Chris Stringfellow, Jonathan Pease, and currently Laurence Padfield.

The organ builders Spurden Rutt undertook the task in 1952 of dividing and enlarging the organ and adding a three-manual console with electro-pneumatic action.

Spurden Rutt console

Allen Digital organ

Thirty years later this action began to fail and along with water damage and the need to remodel the chancel the organ was eventually dismantled and stored in the galleries. In 1994 an Allen digital organ was installed as part of the re-ordering.

The Chancel in the 1980's. To the right are steps leading down to the choir vestry. The organ console is situated behind the eagle lectern and the divided pipework can just be seen above where the church office is now.

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During the latter half of the 19th century records show that the choir were under the direction of three successive organists Mr Gee Baker, Mr F Atkinson and Mr Frederick Leeds.

From 1900 to 1950 the 50 or so members of the choir were under the leadership of William Whitehead who was previously deputy organist at Southwark Cathedral. His successor in 1950 was Lewis Vincent who founded the St. Mary’s Singers now the Lewisham Choral Society.

St. Mary's Choir under the direction of William Whitehead 1907

St. Mary's Choir under the direction of Lewis Vincent 1955

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Frederick Temple - Archbishop of Canterbury 1896-1902

Parishes formed out of the ancient Parish of St.Mary

Parish Magazine March 1902

Celebrating the Lewisham Church Extension Association due to the growth in population.

'The Archbishop's Visit. On Sunday, Feb 9th the Archbishop visited our old Parish Church to preach to men only. Mrs. Temple accompanied his Grace, and stayed in the Vicarage during the service. Over 1,600 men were crowded into the church, every seat and all the aisles and staircase even being thronged with men. It is computed that over 500 had to be sent away. The Archbishop returned the salutations of the crowd with great kindliness, especially noticing some children, and stopping to speak to a little child in hif father's arms. In the church the prayers were read by the Vicar, the lesson by the Bishop of Southwark. The hymns were accompanied by the band of the 2nd Kent Volunteer Artillery. The bells rang a quarter peal of Grandshire Triples.'

St Bartholomew, Sydenham

Christ Church, Forest Hill

All Saints, Blackheath

St Stephen, Lewisham

Holy Trinity, Sydenham

St Philip, Sydenham

St George, Perry Hill

St Mark Lewisham

St Augustine, Honour Oak

St Michael & A.A. Sydenham

The Ascension, Blackheath

St Paul, Forest Hill

St Lawrence, Catford

St Swithun, Hither Green

St Hilda, Crofton Park

St Cyprian, Brockley

St Andrew Catford

St John Baptist, Southend

St Dunstan, Bellingham

1854

1858

1865

1866

1869

1870

1873

1879

1883

1887

1888

1899

1901

1904

1928

1938

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J.A.B Robertson writes in his 'Historical Notes'

Those years before the outbreak of the first world war were extraordinarily happy and strenuous.'

'There had been an enormous increase in the population during the past ten to fifteen years, but Lewisham in 1905 was still a pleasant residential neighbourhood. The parish church was thronged Sunday by Sunday by large congregations, and the hearts of the churchwardens were still gladdened by the considerable number of well-to-do persons who rented sitting in the galleries.'

'In addition to the full round of services in the Parish Church, there were Sunday evening Mission Services at the Men's Institute and in the Mission Hall in Campshill Road. Both these, during the summer months, were preceeded by open air services, often conducted by laymen, and also in summer there was a service after Evensong on the church steps with full choir.'

'The children attending the three Sunday Schools of the parish at this time exceeded 1000, and there were over 60 Sunday School teachers. The children assembled in the Day school at 9.50 for prayers and proceeded to the classrooms for lessons until 10.50. They then went across to the Parish Church Hall for a service which lasted until nearly midday. In the afternoon they assembled in the school again at 2.30 for the marking of registers, then went over to the church at 3 o'clock for a service lasting about an hour. Add to this that the teachers had probably communicated at 7 or 8 a.m. and would most likely attend Evensong in church. It will be seen that Sunday was not a day of leisure.'

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The Vicars of Lewisham

Dates refer to the institution of the Vicar unless otherwise indicated. Information about other incumbents in the medieval period is sometimes scanty and often confusing

c1200 Reference to Geoffrey Chaplain

1226 Death of Nicholas, Pastor

1227 Accidental death of Henry Chaplain

1239 Reference to Robert, Vicar

1256 Reference to John, Vicar

1267 Reference to Richard, Vicar

1297 Reference to William, Vicar

1321 Ralph De Oineye

1327 John De Lee

1345 James Pundrick

1353 Thomas Twenghe

1354 John De Kendale

1376 Reference to William Assere

1396 Resignation of William Cook

1396 John Keylmarsh

1406 Thomas Okey

1410 Reference to Stephen Sheldrake

1411 Reference to Simon Kynot

1411 Reference to William Assewell

1413 Reference to Gilbert Stoneham

1415 Reference to Richard Chapman

1431 Reference to William Frome

1441 John Witton

1444 Peter Rickman

1459 John Mallory (died 1461)

1474 Reference to William Helwyse or Elwys

1483 Reference to Roger Tochet also

ref to Sir John Malyn - 1498

1530 Resignation of Roger Tochet

1530-1545 John Crayford

1546 (May) John Oliver

1546 (October) John Glyn

1568 John Bungay

1595 Adrian De Saravia

1610 Abraham Colfe

1660 Edward Trotter

Came to St. Mary's 1658

1677 Alexander Davison

1689 George Stanhope, some time Dean of Canterbury

1728 John Inglis

1739 William Louth

1795 Hugh Jones

1797 Edward Legge, some time Bishop of Oxford

1825 Hugh Jones (reappointed)

1831 Henry Legge

1879 Augustus Legge (afterwards Bishop of Lichfield)

1891 Samuel Bickersteth

1905 William Woodcock Hough

(afterward Bishop of Woolwich)

1917 Richard Polgreen Roseveare

1924 Arthur Llewellyn Preston

1933 Claude Rutledge Cotter

1944 Perry Douglas Robb

(afterward Archdeacon of Kingston)

1955 Francis Robert Longworth Dames

1966 Harold Gatehouse Bear

1979 David Garlick

2008 Scott Anderson

2012 Steve Hall

Page 57

Percy Douglas Robb

1944-1955

William Woodcock Hough 1905-1917

Edward Legge

1797-1825

Francis Robert

Longworth-Dames

1955-1965

Richard Polgreen Rosevere

1917-1924

Augustus Legge

1879-1891

Samuel Bickersteth

1891-1905

Harold Gatehouse Bear

1966-1977

Arthur Llewellyn Preston

1924-1933

St. Mary's Church Lewisham - History

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