Construction of St Mary-the-Virgin, Kenton
From November 1935 the Record ceased to be St Leonard’s, Kenton, and became the Record of St Mary the Virgin, and in it Fr Johnson wrote: ‘day by day we shall see the walls of St Mary’s rising, and by November [1936] D.V. the church will be completed’. Melsom and Rosier were local builders who had also constructed the Mission Church. They had made the lowest tender among those considered, for £16,750.00. The P.C.C., however, thought it desirable to make provision for certain items which had not been included in the specification, viz, reinforcement of the concrete, £75.00; substitution of the cast lead for milled lead in the guttering, £75.00; and the baldachino, £500.00. Further, about £1,200.00 would be required in fees. The total was thus £18,600.00.
The building committee had been in consultation with Messrs J.W.Walker and Sons, Ltd, about the cost of rebuilding the organ from St Mary’s, Charing Cross Road, and installing it in the new church. After taking advice from Fr Bevan, one of the assistant Priests, who was soon to go to the famous church of St Agatha, Landport [where Fr Dolling had laboured for his Faith], and from Mr Smith, the organist [of whose devotion and long service much could be said, and of whose family’s connections with the catholic Revival, especially at Holy Trinity, Hoxton, a whole book could be written], it was agreed to accept a tender from Walkers for £1,472.00. The organ was to be in a divided case, with two manuals and a pedalboard. In memory of a member of the congregation, a new stop was added, the clarinet [at a cost of £64.00]. This together with the storage charges on the old organ during the building at Kenton, and other fees brought the cost to about £2,000.00 – for which only a small chamber organ would make its appearance at today’s prices!
As to seating accommodation in the new church, the sum of £600.00 was needed for this, but it simply was not available as the need to strengthen the foundations had swallowed all the money. In 1976, the authorities were profoundly grateful for those strong foundations when they held out against the cracking and shifting that was such a feature of that long hot summer in England. Kenton’s soil is clay, and needs much drainage – there is a pump built into the maintenance systems in the boiler room – and so it was to put down deep foundations and then to strengthen them. It will be very difficult to demolish St Mary’s, physically, just as it will be impossible to eradicate the love of God that exists in the hearts of those who worship God within it. So they had no pews, but nothing daunted they set up a seating fund and soon the money was found. Once again, as with other fittings in the church, the seats in St Mary’s are gifts from the faithful in memory of the departed souls.
The work of furnishing the new church once it was completed was not left to chance. Only the best was good enough, a policy that has continued to the present day, for the work goes on from generation to generation, each leaving its mark. The basic requirements were all in place, the font [the first gift for St Mary’s, given by Mr Nash the builder], altar, sanctuary, and places for the people, when the great day arrived. A great day not only for the congregation, but for the whole Parish of Kenton, of whatever denomination or persuasion. A Parish Church belongs in a sense to all, though many may refuse to enter it, for all belong to the God who dwells there with men in the Blessed Sacrament of the Altar.
