This year, All Saints’ celebrates the 60th anniversary of its consecration. To mark this, our parish magazine featured a short series of articles about the history of our church and hall.
In October 1959, the churches of St Paul and its daughter church of All Saints, published the 16 page document Review Your Parish in Action. Revd. Ronald Tostevin was vicar at the time. He had introduced the practice of Christian Stewardship in the two churches the previous year, after British Railways ceased supporting the Church when it was nationalised in 1953. He now called upon the congregations to give financial support for a temporary church building beside All Saints’ church hall, and for a new church building which was being planned to replace both.
The new All Saints’ church and hall were needed to replace the two churches, which were in a very poor condition. St Paul’s had serious problems with dry rot which required immediate restoration. The original old All Saints’ tin church building had lasted ‘long beyond its allotted span’ and was ‘quite obviously beyond hope of repair’ according to Revd. Tostevin, but did have a new lease of life after being dismantled when it was relocated to the corner of Stewart Street and Collins Street. The cost of the temporary building beside the church hall was estimated to be in the region of £1,200, and the new church in excess of £10,000 (in a time when the total annual running expenses of the two churches was under £2,000).
It is not easy to interpret church accounts at that time, as the two churches had one PCC and one set of accounts. An account sheet covering the period from 1959 to 1970, shows that the amount raised by the PCC was significantly more than that. According to other contemporary accounts, the total costs of building and equipping the new church and hall was £48,385, though elsewhere the higher figure of £51,000 has been recorded. The Diocese gave a grant of £31,000 towards this, leaving the PCC to raise at least a further £17,385.
In addition to this, the PCC had to take out a loan to build the Vicarage which is attached to All Saints’ church hall. The original amount of the loan was £10,593, some of which was paid off following the sale of the old Vicarage. Between 1967 and 1970, the PCC paid £2321 in repayments, and the loan balance at the end of December 1970 stood at £5603.
This must have been a great financial commitment for the congregations of the two churches at that time. My own take home pay in early 1970s London was about £10 per week. We owe it to those who went before us, to honour their commitment and keep All Saints’ going for another 60 years.
All Saints' Church 