Back in 1993 All Saints’ Church celebrated its 150th anniversary, and an interesting little booklet, edited by Pamela Petrie, was published at the time which included articles about the history of the church, the village and the school, as well as about different aspects of the church’s role in village life. Some of you may still have a copy.
Scattered throughout one of the articles are mentions of the infrequent discussions that took place over a period of 40 years about whether a tower ought to be added to the church. Evidently it was first discussed in 1886. The then vicar, the Revd. Steuart-Williams told the Parochial Church Council (PCC) that his late wife had collected 50 guineas (£52.50) and that he would match that if the work could be started during the following 12 months. Plans were drawn up by an architect during the next year and parishioners were asked to subscribe towards the cost. There were also plans to build a south aisle. By 1888 enough had been raised for the aisle, but as only just over £220 had been raised towards the tower it was not enough and the project was put on the back burner.
The proposal was not forgotten, but neither was it pursued with any vigour; a collection of 8 shillings and 5 pence at a service in 1904 was not going to make a difference. The matter was raised again in 1913 but without any result. In 1922, the church funds were running low and the PCC sought to use the interest from the tower fund to carry out some more urgent general repairs, but they were advised that they could not. Then, in 1926 repairs were need to the bellcote above the west end of the church and again permission was sought to divert the tower fund which for reasons not explained then stood at just over £187. An architect was consulted and he stated that a tower would not suit the church as it was then. This time use of the money was allowed and the plan to build a tower came to an end.
What is not mentioned in the 1993 booklet, and therefore not in the foregoing account either, is that there must have been another attempt to revive the idea of a tower at the west end of the church, for this watercolour painting survives (I know not where now) of a design for a tower that was made during the first decade of the 20th century. Perhaps it was what prompted the church collection in 1904; perhaps it was what had been discussed in 1913. The architect responsible was R.H. Weymouth who had a practice in Victoria Street, London, and who had been employed at that time by T.H.W. Buckley who owned The Grange to come up with a scheme to develop the Grange estate as a ‘garden village’. Some details of the scheme can be seen in the West Sussex Record Office at Chichester. A few elements were completed, including ‘Ramblers’ (dated 1912) in Turners Hill Road, four or five houses just round the corner at the west end of Sunny Avenue, and a couple of larger ones – ‘Eastnor’ and ‘Gorse Cottage’ – in Vicarage Road, before the outbreak of the First World War put paid to the plan. It would seem likely that this later design for a church tower was part of that scheme, but it is curious that no record seems to have survived among the archives of the church. It is unfortunate that the photograph, which was scanned from a transparency I took back in the 1970s when it belonged to the late George Ryder, is not clear enough to show the date, which can only be deciphered as 190?.