| ST. MICHAEL AND ALL ANGELS, CROYDON THE HISTORY OF THE CHURCH |
| IN THE BEGINNING In the 19th Century a great revival in the Church of England was led by John Keble, John Henry Newman and Edward Bouverie Pusey. The beginning is generally acknowledged to have been in Oxford on Sunday, 14th July, 1833, when John Keble preached a sermon on "National Apostasy" - against the general decline of the English Church. Thus initiated, the Oxford Movement stressed the church's historic continuity with Catholic Christianity and the importance of the Sacraments. This doctrine was spread by means of a series of pamphlets, "Tracts for the Times", which earned the followers of the Movement the name "Tractarians". In Croydon, the founding of the Parish of St. Michael and All Angels served two purposes. There was need for an additional church to accommodate a growing population and there was also the spiritual need to establish a firm centre of Catholic revival in the area. Against opposition from established incumbents, five enthusiastic laymen, F. P. Barraud, Charles Newton, H. Hammond Parker, Frederick Lambert and George Miller gained permission from the sympathetic Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Tait, to found a new parish on condition that they could raise an endowment of £2,000. They succeeded and on 28th July, 1871 they became the first trustees. They swiftly and wisely appointed the Revd. Richard Hoare (at that time assistant priest at St. Saviour's) to be the first vicar. He stayed for 47 years. THE UPPER ROOM The first service was held on 26th November, 1871 in a long, narrow loft over the Co-op Brewery stables on the west side of St. Saviour's Road, (soon to be renamed St. Michael's Road). Access to "The Upper Room" was by a steep and narrow winding staircase. From the beginning, psalms and canticles were sung to plainchant. Services were simple and congregational but even in this early period St. Michael's began to build a reputation for its sound Catholic faith. For example, on Good Friday, 1872 the Three Hours Devotion was conducted by the Revd. R. Hoare for the first time in Croydon. The site is now part of the Bus Station. THE WOODEN CHURCH In 1872 the trustees bought a redundant wooden church ( architect: Mullins) from a parish in Folkestone for the sum of £170 complete with fixtures and fittings. There were seven possible sites for its erection; Oakfield Road, Lennard Road, Derby Road, Handcroft Road, London Road, Station Yard and Poplar Walk. The Poplar Walk site, owned by the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway, appeared to be the most suitable though, owing to complications with the conveyancing, the building had to be stored in East Croydon Station yard for some while. It was erected eventually in the north-east corner of the site, 5 feet from the northern boundary wall. It needed to be enlarged to accommodate an organ and was licensed and opened for worship in September, 1872. On Easter Day in the following year the new "Father Willis" organ was used for the first time. Site boundaries were not fixed yet. The Local Board of Health took a 9 foot strip to widen Poplar Walk and in 1898 the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway agreed to sell for £100 the triangular plot of land at the junction of Poplar Walk and St. Michael's Road to complete the churchyard. |
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| Mr. Hoare (not Father in those days) kept strictly to the Book of Common Prayer, taught fasting Communion and encouraged the use of the Sacrament of Penance and Absolution. He was a great pastor. Canon Heazell, the second vicar, said of him; "He was shy and retiring but pleasant and genial, full of good works and almsgiving - an excellent teacher and a preacher above the average". His style was austere by St. Michael's later standards, but even so, in 1873 he was bitterly attacked in the Croydon Advertiser for "importing ritualism into Croydon". The congregation continued to grow and 500 or even on occasions 600 worshippers packed into the wooden church. THE NEW CHURCH Clearly, there was urgent need of increased accommodation, so in 1874 a Building Committee was formed. By 1876 £600 had been raised and John Loughborough Pearson was invited to submit plans for a permanent church. The builders chosen were Goddard and Sons of Dorking. The estimated cost was £15,000, though the final cost was over £16,000. Money was raised by low interest loans of £50 by members of the congregation. Three families pledged half their income. |
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