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History continued....      p

Thanks to the faithful help of the residents and congregation, St Peters continued to thrive as a local church. In order to contain the church's growing activities the Old School House, the Vicarage and the Tower were added to by the construction of a single storey building built in 1974. Given the lack of funds after the fire this was a rather modest building. It contained a meeting space for 60 people, a kitchen and communal space overlooking the park.

In reaching out to the needs of the estate a youth group run by Daphne Curate and others had over 200  members. The voluntary Youth Club catered for young people age 11-21 until the club finally closed in 2001.  The Parish continued among other things to maintain its traditional role training curates.  Many came and completed their training at St Peters. The last few to be remembered are Chris, Trevor, Sally and Christine.

The Tower remained a familiar feature on the landscape until in 1994 severe structural problems in the brickwork forced a planned demolition of the tower.

In a huge undertaking the structure was carefully dismantled and the old St Peter's Bell and  Clock were removed before the final demolition could take place. However due to pressing lack of funds some of the demolition was not finished and a 15ft victorian wall remained on the site. Often after sunday services some of the congregation would put on hard hats and demolish the wall with pick axes whilst others salvaged the bricks!

Rev Michael Wimshurst was the last vicar of St Peters. When he retired in the late 1990's the church faced an uncertain future. The  faithful ladies of St Peters helped to see off closure and merger those lean times. Pictured on the right are Joyce, Daphne and Cecilia (still members!)

The neighbouring Parish Church of St Mark's Battersea Rise, under the leadership of Revd Paul Perkin, came to the rescue and took responsibility for the struggling congregation. Paul had a vision to see growth in the area once again and sent a small group headed by Irene and Peter Wolstenholme to prepare the ground. Irene as Churchwarden consolidated the community taking on all roles necessary, including treasurer, administrator and pianist!

In April 2007 a group of 19 adults from neighbouring St Mark's Church Battersea Rise led by Patrick Malone and his wife Mauvaine, joined the existing congregation. Their number has been added to by local residents and others keen to see St Peters witness to Christ in the local area once again. As before St Peters Church seeks to bring hope and lasting change to the diverse community that surrounds it.

St Peter's Today!

 

 

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