THE BEGINNINGS
Swanley Junction can lay no claims to great antiquity. Swanley Village possessed a Priory in medieval times, of which no trace now remains except the name, but a map of Kent only 170 years ago shows only one house in what is now St. Mary's Parish and most of the ground is covered by woods. Before that time a certain Abraham Hill, a scientist of some repute and one of the earliest members of the Royal Society, had planted in these parts "the most curious of fruits from Devonshire and Herefordshire, both apples and pears, used in those countries for making cyder and perry, with the intent of introducing them among the orchards of this county, many of which are still remaining here: among which are many trees of that scarce fruit called the Kentish Pippin" (Hasted: History of Kent, 1797). Perhaps Mr. Hill may be regarded as the founder of what is still one of our main industries, but for a long time the district continued to be sparsely inhabited, and included in the parishes of Sutton-at-Hone and Eynsford. About one hundred and fifty years ago the growing population caused the formation of the parishes and the building of St. Paul's, Swanley Village and All Souls', Crockenhill. Both were still remote country villages with little connection with the outside world.
THE IRON CHURCH
The coming of the Railway brought great changes here as elsewhere. Houses began to spring up at Swanley Junction, largely occupied by men engaged in building the line, and towards the end of the last century the Reverend Sir Charles Shaw, Bt., then Vicar of Swanley Village, considered it necessary to make additional provision for the spiritual needs of this end of his parish.
In the autumn of the year 1894 an iron Mission Church was erected on the piece of ground on the opposite side of St. Mary's Road from our present Church, and the first service was held there on Sunday, 7th October. (The date very appropriately coincides with the Eve of our Dedication Festival this year.)
Father Shaw's next step was an exceedingly wise one, and a model to all founders of Parishes. Before proceeding with the building of a permanent Church, he built St. Mary's School in Goldsell Road (the foundation stone was laid on 25th January 1896), rightly seeing that it was no good building a Parish Church until you had a Church School, where you could teach the children who were later to become the members of its congregation.
Services were held in the Iron Church for seven years. After the consecration of St. Mary's it became the Parish Hall and continued as such until it was accidentally burnt down by fire. There are some entertaining entries in the old Service registers about the Iron Church. For example on 1st May 1897, "SS. Philip and James. No service. Room unprepared", with a note in the margin "Mrs Ambrose to quit". It was presumably she who had failed to get the room ready. A Children's egg service held during the same year makes somewhat tantalising reading 190 eggs were brought and sent to the Victoria Hospital for Children in Chelsea! |
