A Purley church which traces its history back more than 100 years to a time when religious services for residents of Higher Drive were being held in a stable, is being sold.
Last toll of the bells: a church has been on the site on Higher Drive since 1913. The St Barnabas building opened in 1959
The ministering and services of St Barnabas Church are now being merged with the parish work of All Saints, Kenley.
The process of closing the church and selling the site has been ongoing since 2023. The vicar, Rev Justine Middlemiss, first announced the move to her much-reduced congregation in what she described as “probably one of the hardest sermons I’ve ever had to write”.
The parish council had been expressing concerns about the “viability” of continuing to hold services at St Barnabas on Higher Drive for 15 years, according to Rev Middlemass. The church’s congregation had diminished rapidly following the covid pandemic in 2020.
There has been a church on or near the site on Higher Drive since a timber and asbestos building was constructed in 1913 – built to tend to the religious needs of residents moving in to new homes built in the area. The current church building at St Barnabas opened in 1959. The nearby church hall, a real hub for local groups and activities, has a distinctly, post-war, village feel to it.
A statement on the parish website said of the closure: “It’s a really hard decision to have made, because we love St Barnabas and its buildings and it holds special memories for so many people.
“But St Barnabas is now a very small worshipping community and we are not able to undertake the significant costs of maintaining the existing church or of undertaking the significant work required to upgrade our church and halls.”
They refer to “the burden of maintaining the St Barnabas buildings”.
Village feel: the St Barnabas church hall
“Basic improvements” to bring the church buildings up to date were estimated to cost £1.5million.
The church won’t be selling the whole site.
The parish “will continue to own and look after the Memorial Gardens, the oak tree and the area from the church down to Higher Drive, retaining that green space for the community”.
The parish says: “Anyone buying the site will have to provide community space, equivalent to the space currently occupied by the two halls. The provision of this space, either on the same site or locally is of vital importance… many of whom use the halls for social and activities themselves.”
This is an effort to guarantee continued provision to “uniformed organisations” linked to the church, such as cubs and guides groups, while also protecting a green space where many Purley parishioners may have scattered the ashes of family members.
The sale is further complicated because the site is part-owned by the church’s parish council and the Church of England’s Southwark diocese.
The sale also means that the church hall at St Barnabas is no longer available to Croydon Council as a polling station for future elections, local, regional or national.
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I was confirmed at the church in the early 60s. At the time I was a pupil at nearby boarding school Reedham.
Sorry to hear re the Closure. Attended Sunday School as a child when living in Old Lodge Lane’.