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1920 |
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Mission church built with 1 small swing chiming bell. |
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1954 |
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Rev'd Vivian Symons acquired All Saints, Peckham for dismantling for materials for Biggin Hill. The bell from this church was brought, inscribed "Ring out the old, ring in the new, ring out the false, ring in the true" by Mears & Stainbank. |
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1957 |
-1959 |
New tower designed and built by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott & Partner. |
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1958 |
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The All Saints bell was given to the RAF Chapel in Biggin Hill. A new tower and bells were ordered. The tower was designed and built by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott & Partner. The bells were from John Taylor & Co. |
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1959 |
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The bells were cast and hung in the new tower. The tenor was hung just above the ringing room with the other five above on one level. The new church was consecrated by the Bishop of Rochester where the bells rang out on 25 Apr. |
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1980 |
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Maintenance provided by John Taylor. |
The following photographs come and text come, with permission, from "The Moving Church" which is the Vicar's account of the building of the church using that of All Saints, Peckham. More information can be found from the Biggin Hill - Then and Now website Photo: |
"To my surprise the first person I asked for directions to reach the Church did not know where it was: the second said vaguely that the Vicarage was further down the road. As I walked through the village it somehow did not seem right; many of the houses a Photo: |
An old church was found - All Saints', North Peckham SE15. Built in 1894 but had been disused for many years.
"As I turned out of the Old Kent Road into Trafalgar Avenue, and crossed the bridge over the Surrey Canal, the church loomed up in front of me. Photo: |
The work had begun. The first thing to do was to erect the scaffolding. This took Vivian many months, ensuring that it was securely butting up against the inside walls of the church. His first goal was to break through the roof and demolish the bell tower Photo: |
With the tower gone the tiles were removed, stacked into bundles of 12 and lowered carefully down to the lorry. The roof could then be dismantled. Each of the huge timbers were lowered to the floor using a petrol driven hoist kindly donated. Measurements Photo: |
With the roof now gone, work started on the walls. Using a pick axe, Vivian, and the occasional volunteer helper, would loosen a handful of bricks at a time, stack them onto the scaffolding platform then lower them to the floor before loading the lorry wi Photo: |
The walls were almost down but there was a problem with the row of arches along the northern side of the nave. These were supported by pillars - each of which weighed somewhere in the region of 2 tons. None of the equipment he had could dismantle these. H Photo: |
"We enlarged the door opening so the lorry could be backed right inside the church to cut down the distance that bricks and rubble had to be carried for loading. The floor of the church was covered with tens of thousands of bricks which had to be taken to Photo: |
3 years, 4 months, 125,000 bricks, countless pairs of gloves, boots and overalls, a vast amount of plasters, 3 lorries and 2 toe nails. Many people gave up their time to lend a hand in one way or another but the majority of the work was completed by Rev. Photo: |