History
In 1960 Storrington was described as a "Methodist Wilderness." Although it had three churches - the parish church, St. Mary's; the Roman Catholic Church, Our Lady of England; and the non-denominational Storrington Chapel, Methodists living in the village had to travel to Ashington, Steyning or Worthing to worship in their own particular way.
Things were set to change, however, with the
arrival of Mr. and Mrs. R. E. Thornton, who,
legend has it, had chosen Storrington for their retirement by sticking a pin in the map. A chance meeting at the bacon counter in Greenfield's shop in the Square, made Mrs. Thornton aware of the existence of other Methodists in the village and the idea of forming a Storrington "society" was born. She put this to the Rev. Donald Rose, the Minister of Steyne Gardens Church in Worthing, who reacted favourably, provided enough people were interested and a suitable meeting place could be found. This was encouragement enough for the Thorntons and the plan went ahead.
So, on 7th October 1960, the first meeting was held in the Thornton's house, Deynecourt, in Greyfriars Lane. Eleven people attended and it was recorded as "the first meeting of the Storrington Methodist Fellowship".
The names of those present were also recorded, all of them incomers to the village. They were: Mr. & Mrs. Thornton, Mr. & Mrs. Percy Gough, Mr. & Mrs. Bernard Daw, Mrs. Helen Belfield, Mr. Botting, Mr. & Mrs. Sinnett and Miss Eede.
Taking the bull by the horns, they decided there and then to hold regular meetings in members' homes and plan for a long-term future. A collection was taken which raised two shillings (10p), hardly a large sum, even in those days. This was put on one side, to be kept "for the time when, it was hoped, it would be necessary to book a hall".
The monthly meetings started to take place and on 25th January 1961, a resolution was formally proposed in the presence of the Rev. J. Allan Fletcher, superintendent minister of the Worthing circuit, that a " Society of Methodists" should be formed. The minutes of the meeting record that this was carried unanimously and, in true Methodist fashion, officers were immediately appointed to take on the work – class leader, society steward, poor steward, organist, secretary, Bible Reading Fellowship leader and door stewards. Already new names were beginning to appear and the membership roll which was started at this meeting showed a total of twenty-one. On this occasion too a donation of £15 was received towards initial expenses and the new venture was properly under way.
The pattern for the future activities of the church was decided upon - weekly house meetings, a communion service once a month and a Christmas party for the children. The most important and ambitious development was the decision to hold the first public service on the following Easter Sunday. At first, the small billiard room behind the village hall was booked. It was thought to be quite large enough for a congregation of twenty-one. But with 1,000 leaflets advertising the service being distributed and a poster displayed outside the village hall, it seemed likely that more would attend and so, with a large amount of faith and, no doubt, some trepidation, the large hall was booked instead.
In the event, faith and hope were justified by a packed hall, as many other people, some from conviction, some motivated more by curiosity, came to join in the Easter worship.
It is moving to read the account of this first service. The hall was old and in need of more than a lick of paint; the upstairs gallery was unsafe; there was an old piano instead of an organ; a table, draped with a blue cloth on which stood a wooden cross, instead of an altar; but the spirit in the congregation was tremendous. It meant so much to them to be able to worship in their own locality in their own way.
This spirit continued in the weekly meetings which took place in members' homes. Later, after the membership had grown too large to be accommodated in this way, people looked back on the sense of closeness which they had experienced. One of them was heard to say rather wistfully, "Nothing we have done since then has been quite the same as those early house meetings."
Before that first Easter Sunday service, ministers had come from Worthing or Shoreham to give communion and lead worship. In the congregation on that morning, however, was the man who was to be instrumental in shaping Trinity's future, the Rev. J. Morris Bold MC.
Morris Bold, who had retired fifteen years earlier because of ill health, is described as being "small of stature, ageing in years yet still retaining an upright military bearing" and as a "little man with a big heart". His ministry had been varied. He had served as a padre in the First World War and won the Military Cross, been chaplain to the forces, superintendent of the Leysian Mission in London and minister at the Dome in Brighton. Although he had taken a back seat during the years he had been in Storrington, there is no doubt that when younger he had been a dynamic character. Now, despite initial reluctance to take on a hard and demanding workload, he could not resist the challenge and came out of his well deserved retirement to become honorary minister to the new church. It is largely due to his energy, drive and commitment, so those involved at the time were convinced, that Trinity grew and developed and was able, in a very short time, to build the church we know so well in Thakeham Road.
The first real step towards this took place on October 2nd 1961, when Mr. Gough presented a financial statement to the quarterly Church Council. This showed a balance of £145.2s.6d. of which £100 was invested as the start of a building fund.
It was an enormously ambitious project for such a small group of people. Property and land values in the Storrington area were not anything like as high as they are today, of course, but there was no way they could hope to succeed without large injections of capital from outside sources.
As far back as May 1961 the search had begun for a plot of land in the centre of the village, but nothing had been found. Then, in February 1962, the site in Thakeham Road became available. It was not seen as ideal at first, since it was further out than was really desirable. On the other hand, the area round about was being developed and there was no place of worship close for the future residents. No one in 1962 foresaw the huge expansion of car ownership which made these considerations almost irrelevant, in the short term anyway. Other sites also came under consideration and a committee was appointed by the circuit to look into the various possibilities. The matter was also referred to the Connexional Chapel Committee in Manchester, the national body concerned with these matters. The wheels were beginning to turn in a big way.
After this, various anonymous donations began to come in. The largest of these was the promise of shares worth around £1,000, which would come to Storrington if a church was actually built. If the project fell through, however, the money was to go to a church in London.
In October 1962 a committee, comprising Mr. A. E. Dunning of Worthing, Mr. R. E. Thornton and Mr. B. Daw from Storrington, was authorised to try to buy the site on Thakeham Road for a sum not exceeding £2,500. In the event £2,475 was paid, an anonymous donation of £1,000 being received at exactly the same time.
As the church was now intending to establish itself in Thakeham Road, members felt it would be sensible to hold services closer to this end of the village, rather than continuing in the village hall. Sullington had recently built a new parish hall and community centre and since this was available on Sunday mornings, services began to be held there, starting on 4th November 1962. Incidentally, this hall was not the splendid new building we see today, but a much more modest affair, so there was little temptation to stay there any longer than necessary!
By this time membership had inched up to twenty-eight. People from other denominations and from neighbouring villages began to come to the services and to join the church. By 1966 membership stood at forty-four, of whom four were local preachers.
During this period a Sunday School was formed, the superintendent being Miss Lowman. Its first meeting was on Easter Sunday 14th April 1963 and eleven or twelve children took part. It met each Sunday before morning service and at one time comprised over twenty children. This number fell, unfortunately, owing to families moving away but about a dozen children generally attended regularly. Mrs. Gough, Mr. Tebbut and Mrs. Cacket were the first teachers. The tradition of a special Anniversary Service and contributions by the children to the Harvest and Christmas services was started, something which continues most effectively to this day.
The first baptism took place in 1962 and in 1966 one of the original Sunday School children, Marilyn Tebbut, was received into membership, an important moment in the life of the church.
Meanwhile, money was being raised for the building fund. As has been mentioned already, two anonymous donations of £1,000 had been received in the very early days, £1,000 of which was towards the purchase of the site, the remaining £1,475 having been raised by the members. In January 1964 another £5,000 was given anonymously, which enabled matters finally to go ahead. Hignet and Phillips of Guildford, the architects of Offington Park Church in Worthing, were commissioned to draw up plans and give estimates for the work. These were then submitted to the Trustees and to the Chapel Committee in Manchester, which put a top limit of £21,500 on the work.
Grants of £9,000 were immediately promised - £7,500 from the Joseph Rank benevolent trust and £1,500 from the Manchester Chapel Committee. In addition to this, the anonymous donations totalled £6,000 plus interest. It was up to the membership of fewer than fifty people to find the rest.
Steyne Gardens and Offington Park churches held special events which contributed around £300 but hundreds of pounds more were raised by sales of work, bazaars, Christmas and Spring Fairs, coffee mornings, garden parties and jumble sales, all undertaken by the hard-working Women's Circle.
Collecting boxes and tax rebates on covenanted gifts also brought in welcome additions, so that by June 1966, £18,973 was already in hand or promised in grants. When architects' and surveyor's fees, plus the cost of furnishings were added, it was estimated that a further £4,500 would still be required.
An appeal was sent out throughout the circuit, the village and to friends throughout the country and abroad. The response to this was so excellent that by the time the stone-laying ceremony was held only £2,500 was still outstanding.
Plans were drawn up in accordance with the requirement of the Joseph Rank Benevolent Trust that the building should be dual purpose - a place for worship on Sundays and a hall for youth work during the week. A vestry, kitchen and toilets were also provided for and plans for the later addition of a hall and ancillary rooms at the back were included.
Y. J. Lovell (Sussex) Ltd were appointed as builders and in July 1966 they began clearing the site and laying the footings. The work was finally under way!
On 3rd October 1966, the day of the stone-laying, the weather forecast was not promising. By mid-morning the rain was pouring down. By two o'clock, however, the sun was shining and all concerned breathed again. But half an hour later disaster once more threatened. Clouds of smoke from a bonfire were blowing right across the site, threatening to engulf it at the crucial moment. Then, just when all seemed lost, the wind changed and the smoke was blown safely the other way.
At 3:30 pm about 250 people gathered for the ceremony, representatives from all the Methodist churches in the Worthing circuit and from the churches in Storrington itself. The service was led by the Rev. R. C. Pattison, the superintendent, and the address given by the Rev. Cyril Wainwright BA BD, chairman of the London South West District. Foundation stones were laid by Mrs Hilda Lang on behalf of the Joseph Rank Benevolent Trust and jointly by the Rev. Morris Bold and Mrs. Gladys Thornton on behalf of the church trustees. Children, representing all the Methodist churches in the Worthing circuit, laid bricks.
It was now decided that the new church should have a proper name. Since several of the members had fond memories of churches named Trinity - some having been married in one! - this was the name chosen. Trinity Methodist Church, Storrington, had finally, officially, arrived on the scene.
Everything now seemed set fair for the opening of the new church, which was planned for Saturday March 4th 1967 but on January 12th a wholly unforeseen event devastated the community. The Rev Morris Bold, who had been such an inspiration and mainstay during the years of planning, was taken ill with a serious heart attack and, despite hopes that he would recover, died in Midhurst Cottage Hospital.
Shock and grief notwithstanding, plans for the opening had to go on and the Rev. Robin Cooper, a young probationer minister, was drafted in from Goring to take over. Morris Bold had left behind him a great legacy, not just a building or even a fellowship, but a strongly. ecumenical outlook. In keeping with this, his funeral was conducted by the rector at the parish church of St. Mary's, while the address was given by the Methodist superintendent of the circuit.
He could have had no idea, however of the furore which would be caused by one of his last, characteristic actions - inviting Dr David Cashman, the Roman Catholic bishop of Arundel and Brighton, to preach on the first Sunday in the new church.
It is hard to remember - or for younger people to imagine - the strength of anti-Roman Catholic feeling among some Protestant groups only thirty years ago. An organisation known as the Protestant Truth Society felt so strongly that inviting Dr Cashman was "a betrayal of Methodism and Protestantism", that they decided to stage a demonstration outside the church.
Letters went back and forth between their representative and the Rev. Clifford Pattison, the superintendent minister at Offington Park, with the Protestant Truth Society claiming they had been asked to protest by "Methodists in the area". When pressed to say who these people were, however, they declined to give names.
Mr. Pattison wrote back quoting John Wesley's Sermon on the Catholic Spirit. "I ask not therefore of him with whom I would unite in love, `Are you of my church, of my congregation?' My only question is this, `Is thine heart right, as my heart is with thy heart? If it be, give me thine hand!' "
This did not satisfy the protesters, however, and as the opening ceremony was taking place on Saturday March 4th, they marched through the village and past the entrance to the church, waving banners and singing, escorted by police. Local residents seem to have been unimpressed and most of the demonstrators appeared to have come down from London. Dr. Cashman said "they were an imported group who specialise in this sort of demonstration". In his opinion, they were "elements which are rapidly dying out".
Meanwhile the opening was proceeding without interference. At 3:30 pm the Rev. C. Pattison knocked on the doors and Mrs. Jessie Bold, Morris Bold's widow, unlocked them from the inside and switched on the lights. As the first hymn was sung the Rev. J. Allan Fletcher dedicated the church and the Rev. Robin Cooper thanked everyone who had made "this day, this great day", possible.
The clergy present included the ministers of the Worthing Circuit, the rector of Storrington, the curate of Sullington and the Roman Catholic parish priest. The address was given by the Rev. C. Leonard Tudor, the former General Secretary of the Home Missions Department of the Methodist Church.
200 people packed the church, which was designed to hold 140, and an overflow of 100 heard the service relayed over loudspeakers to a marquee at the back. Afterwards there was tea in the Village Hall and a Songs of Praise service and on the following day, when Dr. David Cashman preached, there were no disturbances.
This, then, was the culmination of seven years of faith, work and prayer on the part of the little group that had first got together in each others' houses. They now had a church building which was nearly free of debt, a growing fellowship and a strong determination to carry on the work. Those of us who belong to Trinity today, or even simply use its premises, owe a great debt of gratitude to their vision and commitment. Oaks do indeed grow from little acorns, for everything is possible with God.
Compiled from the Archives by Brenda Kelley September 2000
Out of the Wilderness
The Beginnings of Methodism in Storrington
The Beginnings of Methodism in Storrington
