Bromley - St Mary's
Another in the ever expanding Church Micro Series, started by Sadexploration.
Bromley parish church had been sufficient in capacity for many centuries but, accelerated by the arrival of the railway in 1858, the population of the town increased rapidly and more churches were needed. With a new church being built in 1939 on Bromley Common (Holy Trinity) to serve the south of the parish, a third church was needed to cover the north of the parish, and thus St Mary's was proposed.
A site on Brown Field to the west of Plaistow Lane (renamed College Road in 1897) was purchased and building at an original cost of £3000 commenced in 1862. The foundation stone was laid by Sir Samuel Scott, and St. Mary’s Chapel of Ease was consecrated on Tuesday 15th September 1863.
The original church was a somewhat stark oblong building with bell tower, approximating to the outline of the present-day nave. It was denounced by ‘The London Standard’ as “one of the ugliest unfinished churches near London”. In 1881 a chancel, vestries and organ chamber were added. The Chapel of Ease was thus upgraded to the Parish Church of Plaistow.
To ease overcrowding in 1879 the architect W.R. Mallett drew up a design for a larger St. Mary’s Church. This drawing showed the Church with north and south transepts added, and also two side aisles and a 150 foot tower in geometric style of Gothic creation.
The south transept was started in July 1891, and dedicated on 10th January 1892. The consecration of a north transept and enlarged vestries took place on 13th October 1900, giving St. Mary’s Church its present cruciform shape.
In 1997 a spacious oak framed entry porch was built, together with a covered ‘lych gate’ extension. This handsome construction won first prize at the Bromley Designs Awards Scheme 1998 for the best extension to an historic building.
The above has been summarised from the history shown on the church's web site, which also has a downloadable pdf showing many of the features of the church.
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At the given coordinates you are standing in front of a pillar at the left end of the churchyard. There is a plate on the wall which defines the original boundary of the churchyard. The date on the plate is ABCD. The cache, a magnetic bison tube, can be found at :
N51 24. (B-A-D) (B/C) (B-C) E0 00. (B-A) (B-D) (C+D)
There is on road parking locally - just watch the restrictions.
***** Congratulations to RamsPadge on the FTF *****
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For full information on how you can expand the Church Micro series by sadexploration please read the
Place your own Church Micro page before you contact him at churchmicro.co.uk
See also the Church Micro Statistics and Home pages for further information about the series.
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