Bromley Common, St Augustines
Another in the ever expanding Church Micro Series, started by Sadexploration.
At the end of the 19th century the area between the A21 on Bromley Common and the railway line at Petts Wood was still mostly farmland and woods. There were two farms here - Turpington and Blackbrook, with a few scattered cottages and one or two larger houses. A large number of small terraced houses began to appear in the area immediately east of Bromley Common, and roads such as Southlands Road and Chatterton Road were laid out. St. Luke's, a fine brick building, opened in 1890 to service this area.
As more houses were built the need for a mission church to be established in the area of Southborough Lane was recognised. In 1912 the owner of Turpington Farm offered to sell part of an orchard across the road from the farm as the site for a "Tin Tabernacle", a corrugated iron "pre-fab" chapel. So by the following year the small chapel called St. Augustine's was built. This was still within the Parish of St. Luke's, and services were conducted by the Curate of St Luke’s.
Still more houses appeared, stretching up to Petts Wood, and it was realised that St. Augustine's would have to be a separate parish. This became so in 1934, the first Vicar being the Revd. R.H. Soar. In 1938 a fine church hall was built on ground behind the church to supplement the limited space in the church itself. This is now the Dancing Academy in St. Augustine's Avenue.
In 1948 the Diocese of Rochester purchased the site of Blackbrook House, which had been badly damaged in 1940 when a parachute mine landed nearby. This was about half a mile to the east of the church and closer to the centre of the parish. Mr. Victor Heal, a well-known architect, who lived at Turpington Farm, and who had designed the church hall, offered to design the new building. After many years of fund-raising the foundation stone was duly laid on September 28th 1957, and a year later, in October 1958, the new church was consecrated.
In 1970 additional room was provided by the building of the Barnard Room followed in 1976 by a number of internal improvements to the main church. In 1986 further extensions were made on the north side. A larger room, known as the Garden Room linked the church to the Scout Headquarters; a coffee bar, improved toilet facilities, and a smaller room and lobby at the western end completed the improvements. In 1992 the flat roof of the main church, which had for some years given rise to weatherproofing problems, was replaced with a low-pitched roof. 1999 saw the replacement of the original wooden chairs with comfortable padded ones, and the carpeting of much of the church.
The information about the church has been adapted from the history on the church’s website.
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The cache, a hanging bison tube, is not at the given coordinates, which are close to the church. From this point you can see two faces of the church, the front on the left and the side on the right (parallel to the road); do not take notice of the additional side wall that you cannot see from the coordinates. Note the following features:
A = number of very long windows on the side of the main body of the church divided by 2
B = number of very long windows on the front of the church divided by 2
C= number of very long white drainpipes on the side of the main body of the church (upper wall only)
The cache is about 250m away and can be found at:
N51 23.C (A+B) C
E0 2.(Cx3) B (A-C)
** Congratulations to Seeking Masters on the FTF **
31/8/2013 Text updated to clarify calculation. Difficulty increased to 2.
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For full information on how you can expand the Church Micro series by sadexploration please read the
Place your own Church Micro page before you contact him at churchmicro.co.uk
See also the Church Micro Statistics and Home pages for further information about the series.
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