A Church for Stanmore

(Peter Bogan)

One day in 1965 Canon Mullarkey asked me to go to Oliver’s Battery with him to look at a field. I had been with him to survey several possible sites for future schools and chapels which he had considered buying.  He was a firm believer in expanding our resources. But this was no ordinary field. It was a former stud farm where a Grand National winner had been bred. There were Irish weeds growing happily in the grass, brought with fodder for the horses. I was very impressed and gave Canon my support. So he went ahead, bought the site and set about planning a new church for Stanmore and Oliver’s Battery and a badly needed annexe for the overcrowded and cramped St Peter’s School, Gordon Road. This was urgently needed because we had run out of building space and most of the Juniors were camped in the former St Bartholomew’s School in Hyde. When the Juniors did, eventually, move up to the Annexe we found the stables which I had persuaded the architect to leave intact, made wonderful stores. There were still horses running in the field at that time. On the first morning one of the girls tried to feed one and was bitten. When I duly reported the incident to the Education Office, I was asked if we were running a school or a ranch.
Canon Mullarkey was always in the forefront of liturgical developments. This was the time of the Second Vatican Council. He wanted a different building from the traditional churches. The altar was to be as nearly central as possible with the congregation assembled around it. He found an architect who shared his views and so the present beautiful church was conceived and built. It was solemnly opened by Bishop Worlock in 1969 and dedicated to St Stephen. The Altar Servers Guild of St Stephen was close to Canon Mullarkey’s heart.  Soon Mary Fairburn’s iconic Stations were added and Normal Pierce’s Madonna. When parishioners from the wider parish began to go to the new church the Canon was not too pleased. I was once asked what I was doing there, when my church was St Peter’s. He wanted this to be a separate entity, serving the surrounding district. He intended housing a resident priest in the house, now gone, in the corner of the site. 
Meanwhile the first stage of the new school was being erected. This was also known officially as St Stephen’s, a cause of some confusion later on. But that’s another story. Bishop Emery was adamant that the name of St Peter’s should be kept and that the church should not be used for anything secular. Bit by bit the former stud farm has been whittled down for housing developments. When the Badger Farm Estate bought the new road, cutting Olivers Battery Road in half, the land for the roundabout was sold to the Authority by the Diocese. I tried to keep as much land as possible for the school, but as ever financial considerations won the day. But what is left is a gem, a beautiful church in lovely surroundings with a superb school now physically attached to it. St Peter’s and St Stephen’s complementing each other in perfect harmony, twin jewels of the Parish of Hampshire Downs.

Peter Bogan