A brand new Methodist church is opening near the Standard on June 27th.

The Sunfields church has been built at the corner of Old Dover Road and Banchory Road on the site of previous Methodist churches and chapels dating back to 1869.

The £1.75 million project has been financed by the sale of land where six houses have been built for sale.

A spokesman for the church said:” It has taken over ten years of voluntary dedication to see the project through.”

The spectacular new building has been designed by Greenwich firm of architects BPTW and built by Farnrise Constructions Ltd.

The premises will include – in addition to the church - a hall, a lounge and a kitchen which will be available for use by the church and local community groups.

An important feature of the building will be a stained glass window from artist Sarah Galloway in the west wall depicting the Light of Life.

Also in June the church will host the National Methodist Art Collection –a selection from a group of 40 works of modern Christian art.

The opening will be carried out by the President of the Methodist Conference, the Rev Dr. Stephen Poxon.

Sunfields Minister, the Rev Claudia Lupi said:” We believe there is one body, one spirit and one Lord; this means that our congregation is completely open to the community. We welcome diversity, which enriches us all. We are a place where we can share and hope in unity.”

 The history of the church goes back to 1865, when a successful businessman by the name of Williamson Lamplough moved into the Blackheath area, where there was already a lively Christian Methodist community in existence, based in the Village.

 

At his instigation a small brick chapel in Sunfields Place was hired for use, and organised Methodism began there in about 1869, supported by the Blackheath and other local Methodist churches.

 

In addition to ordinary services a Sunday School was started, and the whole cause prospered amazingly. The chapel was enlarged in 1876, and extended again "in the direction of the new Banchory Road " in 1887, largely thanks to the generosity of the Lamplough family.

 In 1902 the opening is recorded of a new church in Banchory Road - the new Sunfields Memorial Church, declared to be built “to the Glory of God, and in loving memory of the late Mr and Mrs Williamson Lamplough of Blackheath by their family.“

 

The premises were extended again in 1928, and a new Hall was built in 1932 to accommodate a Sunday School, which at its peak numbered over 1,000 children.

 

On November 30 1944 a V2 rocket fell on Sunfields Place, killing 19 people and seriously damaging the Church, the School Hall and the ancillary premises.

 

It was typical of the resilient spirit of the times that meetings and services were resumed on the Sunfields site in the Church Hall as early as 1946. Eventually the damaged church was rebuilt, albeit on a smaller scale, and reopened in 1956.

 

In 1996 it was decided that the whole range of halls and ancillary spaces that Sunfields had acquired over the years had become too costly to maintain, and that the church was no longer suitable for requirements and had become too expensive to maintain.

 

Therefore the plan was mooted to demolish all the buildings, to sell off a part of the land for use as housing and by this means to finance the construction, on the corner of Banchory Road and Old Dover Road, of a new church with a hall, sizeable kitchen and other amenities, more suited to our current needs.

 

After a long haul through the planning application processes, including the submission of two designs for the church, and one building company going into liquidation, it finally proved possible to proceed with Asprey Homes buying part of the site and Farnrise Construction building the church. Demolition took place in 2007, building work started on the church in 2008.