A brief history of the Parish of Rumboldswyke - Part 4: 1960 onwards
By Ken Green
Continued from previous page.
The laying of the foundation stone for Saint George's Hall.
The opening of the church fete soon after Saint George's Hall had been built. The report in the local paper states:
ELSIE and Doris Waters better known as 'Gert and Daisy,' the popular variety double act left Whyke Church Fete on Saturday with aching wrists, after completing a hand-writing marathon.
Within one and a half hours they wrote more than 400 autographs for hunters young and old, charging sixpence or more a time, to swell the fete takings.
Laughing and chatting they sat behind a stall of their own at which there was a long queue. They did it the hard way, too. adding a short message and the name of the autograph hunter.
Gert and Daisy, who live at Steyning, Sussex opened the fete. startingwith a straight speech and then breaking into the humorous back chat which has endeared them to British audiences. The Mayor and Mayoress. Coun. and Mrs. William Pope. and the Rector. the Rev. Richard Ratcliff. who were also on the platform, thoroughly enjoyed themselves.
They were introduced by the Rector and thanked by the Mayor. Gert and Daisy were to have opened last year's fete but they could not get there and sent something to be sold instead.
Walking round the fete, they stopped to cheer up nine-year-old Linda Birch of 54, Cambrai Avenue, Chichester who visited the fete in a wheel chair. Linda broke a leg two weeks ago in a fall, and she told Gert and Daisy "that it was healing very nicely, thank you."
The fete was organized by the Social Committee of the Church Council to raise money to reduce the £600 debt on the newly built church hall. The committee set an ambitious target of £250 and thanks to the big draw of Gert and Daisy's presence, approximately £200 was raised.
A feature of the fete was the large amounts of home produce made by the ladies of the church. Of all the gaily decorated stalls, the cake and preserve stalls did the most business.
Organizations within the church in charge of stalls were: Mothers' Union. cakes and preserves; Guild of Fellowship, tombola; Young Wives, Rectory stores; Ladies Working Party, needlework; Church of England Men's Society, vegetables, fruit and plants and the sideshows; Youth Group, perfumery.
Father Richard Ratcliffe, the Mayor's Chaplain on the Saluting Platform at the ceremony of presenting the Freedom of the City of Chichester to the R.A.F. Station Tangmere. 05 May 1960.
ST MARY'S ORGAN
When St. George's Church was opened in 1901 the old organ of St. Mary's was taken there and did service until 1949. The fact that St. Mary's had no organ was of little consequence since the Church remained virtually unused until the incumency of Father Richard Ratcliff. The slow rehabilitation of the old church was started and its regular use was again contemplated. But there was no organ. At this point (1953) the Vicar and Churchwardens of St. Peter the Great made a gift of the small one manual instrument by William Hill which stood in St. Andrew's Church in East Street, Chichester. This instrument was quite derelict as a result of bomb damage. It was, however, salvaged, repaired and re-erected in the N.E. comer of the nave of St. Mary's during the winter of 1954-55, the work being done by Leslie and Dorothy Brooks, Terence Banks, and Geoffrey Bamard. This organ was opened on February 18th, 1955, and the final decoration of St. Mary's was completed in August 1959.
During the late evening of January 6th, 1960, a fire broke out in the organ as a result of which the instrument was totally destroyed and the church badly damaged. Steps were immediately taken to replace the instrument and repair the Church. An Organ Fund was opened and an appeal made for money to purchase another old instrument standing in the hall of the Central Foundation Girls School in London. By the end of Sunday, February 14th, the day of the appeal, a total of £ 131.11 s. 0d. had been subscribed, enough to buy the organ, pay for its carriage and contribute towards the cost of repairs. On Saturday, March 19th, the 'old' team went to London, dismantled the organ and brought it to Chichester on the following day .Then began the long job of cleaning, repairing and re-erection. Forth is work Norman Fox joined forces.
The 'new' organ was dedicated on Saturday 24 September 1960 by Bishop Gwyer followed by a recital on the instrument by John Birch, the Cathedral Organist. The organ was a two manual instrument of nine speaking stops bearing the name' Bevington ' -a maker of fame in the 19th century. The organ stood originally (1830) in All Saints Chapel-of-Ease, Bishopsgate. When the Great Eastern Railway acquired this site in 1871 the organ was transferred to a new 'Hall' used jointly by the Parish of St. Botolph and the Bishopsgate Ward School. This site too was acquired by the railway company in 1889 and once more the organ was moved to its fmal London home, the Hall of the Centra1 Foundation Girls School. Here it was severely damaged in a great storm of 1921 but was restored in 1926, the bicentenary of the school. During subsequent years the instrument decayed slowly until it became unplayable. So repaired and renewed came to rest in Chichester, in the old Parish Church of St. Mary, Wyke.
INFORMATION BASED ON PROGRAMME NOTES BY FATHER RATCLIFF
David Jackson Brecknell MA, Rector from 1975 to 1995.
From Keble College and St Stephen's House Oxford, Father Brecknell had served as deacon at St Peter's Streatham and as assistant priest at Sneiton. Notts, and Solihull, Birmingham. He held the position of vicar of St Paul's Furzedown, SW London, before coming to St George's. His appointment was announced in August but it was to be Advent before he took up the post. In October 1979 the Rector was made also priest-in charge of Portfield and, with another church and congregation to minister in, services were no longer held in S. Mary's. He became Rector of the combined Parish of Whyke and Portfield from 1981.
During his time in office the old rectory was sold and the present one built, the old rectory is now a house and has been named Brandram House as a tribute to the Rector who first lived there.
Father Brecknell retired in 1995 and now lives in Boxgrove where he plays an active part in the life of St Blaise's Church.
Father Paul Seaman, our present incumbent, was inducted on December 5th 1995, under his charge the Church family continues to thrive and grow. The Millennium was marked with an exhibition held in the Church, which commemorated the life of Christ. It was assembled by the co-operation of four local junior schools. During 2002 work was undertaken to constuct
a new extension to the church to replace the church hall.
![[Saint George's, Whyke]](/images/topbar/stgeorges.gif)