This village church was built in 1900 on land donated to the village by Mr. and Mrs H.J Howard, before it was built the people of Bartley had a very long walk to Copythorne. The Howards determined to solve this problem set about raising funds in the village to build a place of worship that would give the people a church and Sunday school and centre of village life of their own.
The Howards were the main family of the village owning much of the land and many of the cottages, most of these had been built by the owners of Goldenhayes over many years and the Howards continued this build of cottage housing for families working on the estate building particularly in PURKESS Close , these properties are now mainly privately owned. The land having been given to the village people, they under the guidance of the Howard family set out to build a church that would act as a place worship and as a center of community gathering. The building was bought in what today we would call a Flat Pack, as far as we can see it cost £90 to purchase and was then erected presumably with help of villagers and local builders, the construction is very simple consisting of a wooden frame lined on the outside with corrugated iron and on the inside with tongue and groove pine boards, no insulation in those days and the whole was lit by gas lights we are not sure at the moment how it was heated, surprisingly the timber frame beneath the cladding is in good order today however the timber floor is totally rotten and will be replaced. Inside the church the church was cleverly designed to play its dual role, by closing the folding oak doors over the chancel and altar the building became a church room, a very convenient meeting place and in those days used a great deal, and that is how the trustees of today see its new future after restoration.
The church rooms and the land in which it stands were conveyed as a gift by sealed instrument dates 13.3.1901 into the custodian trusteeship of the Winchester diocesan Board of finance in whose hands the church thrived until the 1980,s when interest seem to deteriorate and they decided to sell the site off for development of a house or bungalow, the protest from the village was long and loud and planning permission that had been applied for was denied, the present restoration committee grew from this and was able after a lot of fund raising and generous donation by the inhabitants and local business and charities to purchase the site from the Diocesan Board, the committee felt sad that the church could not give back to the community that which had been given to them.
The church in the 1920's held morning services with a lay preacher ( Mr. Hadenn) present taking the services. A choir of boys singing under the supervision of Miss Mabel Light playing the harmonium and also the part of lead singer as well. At the end of each service the choir and children all marched out singing "Onward Christian Soldiers" a very happy and invigorating time I would think. The church bell.(still in place) was rung before the service by a Mrs. Dunnings , she lived opposite in the little shop(still in business and run by Kathy Luke) with her sister Rhoda Hiscock. Next to the church is a cottage(Springfield) and the house next door were in the 20's still owned by Mrs. Howard these were used to house the church Lay Preacher's . A Mr. Parris was the Lay Reader in the late 1910's with his wife taking a very active role in village life and after his death Mrs Parris as a church worker lived there alone, we are told she was a very large lady who rode a tricycle around the village keeping the sick people in touch with the church and the vicar. (Details kindly given by Mary Poore Nee Hadden) Mrs Parriss is shown in one of yesterdays photographs donated by Vi, turner and it confirms Mary's description.
In a note written by H.C. Howard he notes that a Mr. Chamberlain was the first Lay reader and his son after he was ordained ,returned to baptize the first baby at the Bartley Tin Church and that was Mrs. Mannooch"s daughter Violet(Violet Turner, USA), Water brought back by Mrs.Howard from the Holy Land was used, that must have been very social in 1920, and shows the intense interest of Constance Howard in her church and her village people.
Today on 1999 for the centennial and the millennium we are bringing together by word of mouth , by letter from local sources and from overseas some details of life in the village in the early 1900' and the valuable religious and cultural benefits it brought to those living here.Please send any any written or photographic history YOU have on Bartley from wherever you are in the world.
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