Saint George's Centenary Centre

Building the Centre

From clearing the site adjacent to the church, which began in March 2002, to its dedication at the end of September in the same year, the Centenary Centre only took seven months to build, which, as the following photographs will demonstrate, was a tremendous achievement. The planning that preceded the actual building took a little longer, and was not without its difficulties.
St George's had been served well by a hall, built in 1959 as a meeting place for many church and parish groups. It boasted a large, well-proportioned hall, with an excellent stage, a smaller meeting room, kitchen, cloakrooms and vestibule facilities. However, as the years passed, so did the needs of the people using the hall, and it became a less productive asset, which needed money spending on it to bring it in line with the requirements of the twenty first century. In addition to this, there was a need for toilets in the church building itself. And a thriving church necessitated increased facilities for choir, sacristans and servers, not to mention the flower ladies, who performed weekly miracles with the aid of one tap, strategically placed two feet above the floor of the rear porch. So, after much heart searching, it was decided to sell the old hall with its accompanying land for new homes, and use the monies raised to build on to the north side of the church.

The main thrust of this project fell within St. George's Centenary year, and so a whole range of events was organised, some of which were major fund-raisers, and all of which celebrated one hundred years of worship.

The following photographs depict the progress of building the new Centenary Centre, and of the thanks which should be extended to so many, none are more heartfelt that to the Builders, Underwoods, who were unfailingly professional, conscientious, and most remarkable of all, on time, to give the Centenary year its new centre, ready for 29th September 2002.