In the 1930's a memorial to Reverend Cyril Reinold was proposed and a fund started. It was decided to change the whole window over the high altar into stained glass as a memorial window.
The right hand panel had already been
proposed in memory of the boys lost in the Park Fete Disaster of 1929. The artist, Miss Muriel Minter
(Mrs Cooper), advised that all five lights should be made together to ensure matching colours, and the go-ahead
was given in the hope that funds would be available by the end of the ten months it would take to carry out
work.
The three centre lights were the memorial to Reverend Cyril Reinold, and the left-hand light was to all Sunday
School children - "Past and Present". All the money was raised before the dedication, the Scout and the Sunday
School paying for the two side lights - a total with the Reinold Fund of more than £250. The window was
unveiled by Mr Alick Tassell and dedicated by Bishop King on 22nd November, 1931.
At this time the large picture on the East wall was moved to the North wall against the strong opposition from the artist and the Rural Dean, who considered that a "Faculty" was required for its change of position. This was apparently not so and the picture was left in its present position.
Alongside it was a smaller picture (right), called "Patience", by Frederick Shield.
At Easter, 1932, a new Lectern Bible war dedicated; it was given by the Mothers' Union and a few friends of the Church. During the 1930's many gifts of frontals for the altars, other worked textiles, and flowers, plants and bulbs for the grounds were received.
Early in 1933, the Church Council decided to build a new Hall. Plans were accepted by the P.C.C. and the Rochester Diocesan Board of Finance was approached in the hope of a grant. Instead of a donation, a select committee came, and after discussion, its leader, Canon Gray, stated that they would not recommend any grant whatever for a new Hall while there was still an unfinished Church.
So at a monthly meeting of the P.C.C. it was decided to complete the church. The funds available totalled £2.14.6d! (£ 2.72) The first idea was to continue the Nave with two more bays (there were already three), with a South porch in the third way leading to Rainham Road, a West porch in the fifth bay leading to Rock Avenue, and a tower. A tower would have added at least £4,000 to the cost. The finally agreed plans for one bay only with a West porch, and a Parish Room instead of continuing the aisle, were prepared by Mr Grant, the Diocesan Architect. The estimate of Wallis of Maidstone was accepted and the work was completed in 1936. If you look carefully, the boundary between the older and newer parts of the church can just be identified.
Some delays occurred in starting the work - fortunately as it happened - so that it was all done in the summer of 1936. The winter is no time to be without a West wall! The apex stone was laid and blessed by the Vicar on 2nd September 1936, and the whole extension of the extra Bay, West Porch and Parish Room was dedicated by the Bishop of Rochester on 9th October, 1936.
The bust of St Augustine over the West Door was by a London sculptor, J A Stevenson, after a likeness of
Archbishop Lang. St Augustine is portrayed wearing a mitre and pallium (vestment) granted to him by Pope
Gregory the Great and holding the primatial cross of an Archbishop. This cross has five medallions symbolic
of the five early Primates of All England who laid the foundations of the church in this land - Augustine, Theodore,
Dunstan, Alphege and Anseirn. Behind the head is a gilded halo. On the right-hand is a representation of our
completed church. On the left-hand is a model of an ancient boat, symbolic of St Augustine's hazardous journey
across the sea to proclaim the gospel in this (then) barbarous land and to remind us that we have the same task
of spreading the gospel in our own generation.
Perhaps one more event of this period should be recorded and in the words of Mr Oxenbury:
"A builder named Varrall (a free churchman) made an offer to build a hall for our young men and they could pay him whenever they liked. The cost was £60, and when built, in 1935, it was called the "Young Men's Institute". We had a splendid body of young men - they could always be seen filling up the back seats in church on a Sunday. But the war came and claimed many of them".
The Jubilee Hall, as it later became known, gave wonderful service over the years until it became unsafe and had to be demolished in 1993.
Page last updated: 16/12/2011