A Brief History of St. Mary's Church - 3
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Church Restoration in the 1960s
The Revd Harry Crichton became Vicar in 1960, and during his time several changes were made to the church interior. Great St Mary's Church in Cambridge offered enough good quality oak pews to fill the centre nave at around £20 each, and pews were bought for the side aisles from an American air base, allowing the badly wood worm infested chairs to be replaced. A new heating system was also installed.
In November 1963 a Faculty was granted for the restoration of the Paris chapel, which had been used to store brooms and odds and ends. About £1000 was raised and work began in January 1964 on the new Chapel of Remembrance or Resurrection, which was consecrated by Bishop Walsh in April, 1964. It was also decided that the wooden War Memorial should be moved to the north wall of the nave, where everyone could see it.
In March, 1967 the vicar, an ex- cabinet maker built a new nave altar in oak and walnut. He took three weeks to produce the altar – 6 feet wide and 2 foot 9 inches tall. The platform for it was built by Ian Gurr and Maurice Biggs, a choir member and apprentice carpenter.
Church Refurbishment in the 2000s
A flash flood in October 2001 (a similar flood had occurred 33 years previously) resulted in extensive damage in a number of areas of the village, including the church itself. Despite the best efforts of volunteers to move as many small items as possible to a higher level, carpets, altar frontals and various furnishings, as well as the boiler, were all damaged beyond repair. Services were temporarily re-located to the Village Hall, and humidifiers ran for several weeks in an attempt to dry out the building. A cold and damp winter ensued until a new boiler could be installed in the spring of the following year. Insurance money enabled a new all-seasons altar frontal and kneeler to be purchased for the high altar.
Further refurbishment has seen the fitting of new external doors to the south and north porches and new oak cupboards and shelving at the back of the church. Finally, in order to provide greater flexibility in the use of space, as well as improved comfort, most of the large pews from the centre of the nave have been moved to the side aisles, and replaced by chairs [photos 16 and 17].
