Welcome to page 12 of the history.

1950 A new decade : 1950 A new start : Things were stirring, The Eagle comic was published, technological developments were taking place - J Lyons & Co built and ran Lyons Electronic Office (L.E.O.), the first digital office computer in the world, to do their bookkeeping and in the Parish of All Saints, West Parley the P C C seems to have lost track that it owned a plot of land on which to build a new church.

What conditions prevailed in the parish at the start of the new decade? We know that there had been changes of incumbent and times when there was no rector at all. We also know that development was taking place and Harrison at least, had been sufficiently concerned about the Town & Country Planning Act to have taken the action he did, but what the members of the P C C had on their minds at this time is a currently a mystery, hopefully to be cleared up by further research. What is apparent from the documentation is that there was great confusion regarding the ownership and purpose of a plot of land "owned" by All Saints West Parley. having been donated by Lord Wimborne. There are many documents on file which are copies of Col Drew's documents or of the land certificate, held by the Diocesan Board of Finance located in Salisbury. These documents are accompanied by a plethora of notes and memos surmising the true state of affairs. It would appear that there was no knowledge amongst the PCC members of the history or intention regarding this plot of land. A good example is reproduced below¹ :

18 January 1950 Dear Mr Canning, Here is some information about the site reserved for a new church. Mr Harrison made these extracts from the correspondence of the time, as I felt that I must be in possession of the facts before the meeting of the R.D.Chapter this morning. This is a duplicate type-written copy, and you may like to file it among the churchwardens' papers. At the meeting practically all the parishes in the Deanery were brought under review, and certain suggestions were made which in due course will be brought before the Diocesan sub -committee for discussion. Yours sincerely E V Robinson (The Rector) Added in manuscript as notes See PCC! Harrison apparently has this RD file. The Deed concerned is I imagine the ??? Parley West Land Certificate no P66407 shown on p103 of Salisbury Diocesan Board of Finance 1949 year Book. Building has now taken place in ???? to the boundary of our land. The big heath fire two years ago may have destroyed some of the boundary posts I believe Harrison was dealing with this. There are I believe some limiting clauses in the deed and knowledge of these is surely necessary to enable one to consider this matter. The writing in the next paragraph cannot be deciphered but may indicate that Harrison is to ill to attend any PCC meetings. The date at the end is 14 March 1950

Whilst development in the area was proposed and taking place, the 1951 Cencus gives the population of the Parish of Hampreston (i.e. includes Ferndown) as 4204 - up from 2500 in 1931 and for West Parley from the Salisbury Diocesan Year Book 1950 = 490 : 1960 = 1213. The present combined population is over 20,000 people. So in 1950 there was no sense of urgency, understandable perhaps. What I cannot reconcile in my reading and research is the lack of inclination to build a church and yet there is such great concern regarding access, though the subject lies dormant for four years, then, in 1954 this question is raised again by the P.C.C

Letter dated 17 May 1954 to Town Planning Officer, East Dorset Joint Planning Committee, Wimborne, Dorset Dear Sir, New Church Site, Ferndown I have to refer to a letter from your department marked HA/JB dated the 8 February 1946, and addressed to the late Mr W N Harrison,in which it is stated that foot access to the church would be allowed from the main road and that vehicular access could be obtained from the new road at the rear of the site. From a recent inspection of the site it appears that the arrangement of the fencing of the two building plots adjacent to the south east corner of the church site precludes vehicular access to the site from Birch Avenue. I am instructed by the West Parley Parochial Church Council to request you to be good enough to take such action as may be necessary to ensure that the vehicular approach to the site be not obstructed. I remain,dear Sir, yours faithfully C J Charlewood Hon Secretary to the West Parley Parochial Church Council.

So the PCC has lost a valuable worker in Harrison, but fortunately Charlewood was to prove a more than able successor. It was also fortunate that the PCC was so concerned with vehicular access as it was this facet that triggered the building work following a rather prickly exchange of correspondence.

24 May 1954 from Dorset County Council County Planning Department (based in East Borough Wimborne Council Offices at that time) New Church site Ferndown Title No ... In reply to your letter of the 17th inst. regarding a vehicular access off the estate road to the proposed Church site at West Parley, I have looked up the approved estate layout and the detailed plans of dwellings which have been approved adjoining the site. I find that no vehicular access is shown on any of these plans neither has any building been approved in such a position that it would preclude a way being made from the estate road to the site. I cannot force any owner of the land to set back his fences to allow for this access. The land must be purchased by the Church Council. I can, however, suggest to the Planning Committee that they do not give consent to any building which would be sited on the lineof the access. I think it advisable that your Church Council should purchase the required amount of land as soon as possible as the owner of the land could, if he so wished after a dwelling had been erected erect a garage on the line of this access without obtaining Planning permission. The Town & Country Planning General Development Order, 1950 permits a garage and extensions to a dwelling up to a certain size to be erected without obtaining Planning permission. Yours faithfully H D Abbott Area Planning Office

This reply did not at all accord with the thinking of the West Parley Parochial Church Council. (Note: there is to be no further mention of All Saints, we are definitely West Parley now) In danger of being shut in, with no car access at a time when car ownership was increasing (my parents acquired a car in 1956 after giving up their vehicle in the war years), so with their backs to the wall the PCC secretary wrote :

1 June 1954 letter to Area Planning Officer, Civic Centre East Borough Wimborne from Secretary PCC Dear Sir, New Church Site Ferndown With reference to your letter of the 24th May 1954, it appears to the West Parley Parochial Church Council that whereas the building plans and sites adjoining the proposed church site, which have been approved by the Dorset County Council, do not permit of vehicular access from the estate road to the church site, vehicular access from the main road must now be granted. I am directed therefore, by the West Parley Parochial Church Council to request that vehicular access to the proposed Church site from the main road may be permitted, and to state that my Council considers it desirable to have on record the decision of the Dorset County Council. I remain, dear Sir, Yours faithfully C J Charlewood Hon Secretary to the West Parley Parochial Church Council.

In response to this huffing and puffing a letter is received from the planning department pointing out that approval for a church has never been given. This is perfectly correct as the PCC, All Saints or West Parley, had never ever thought of making an application let alone put pen to paper and ask. Despite previous difficulties with the retention of Rectors, thankfully by now Rev'd Freeman was in charge, All Saints was a well attended church. Housing development was taking place, you would have thought that someone would have exercised some nervous energy on the subject.

Letter dated 3 June 1954 from East Area Planning Office, Civic Centre, East Borough, Wimborne Dear Sirs, New Church Site, Ferndown - Title No.xxx In reply to your letter of the 1st inst. regarding a request for vehicular access on to the main road, this must bedone on the appropriate forms. The site has never received Town Planning approval for the erection of a Church and I therefore suggest that the application should be in the form of a permission to use the site for the erection of a Church with vehicular access on to the main road. I enclose the necessary application forms which should be completed and sent, together with 3 site plans sufficient to identify the exact area of land, to the Surveyor of the Wimborne & Cranborne R.D.C., "Woodleaze", Furzehill, Wimborne. If these are received not later than the first post on the 10th June they can be considered at the meetings to be held this month. Yours faithfully H D Abbott Area Planning Officer

and so on the 23 June 1954 Commander C J Charlewood RN Ret'd finally made a formal application. At last we are on our way!

Letter dated 23 June 1954 to The Surveyor, Wimborne & Cranborne R D C Dear Sir, New Church Site Ferndown With reference to the Area Planning Officer's letter HA/MH, dated the 3 June 1954, I hereby on behalf of the West Parley Parochial Church Council make application to use the site, of which the Title Number is Pxxxxx, for the erection of a Church with vehicular access on to the Bournemouth-Ringwood main road. Three relevant site plans are enclosed with this application. I remain, dear Sir, Yours faithfully C J Charlewood Hon. Secretary to the West Parley P C C

Finally we have progress. Even so the meeting of the 10 June referred to in the Planning Officers letter was missed but nevertheless the application was considered in August. Presumeably the favourable decision (of sorts) was communicated to Charlewood. There is no record or reference to it in the documents seen so far. As can be seen from the letter below whilst permission for the Church was given there was still this vexed question of access. The problem must have been referred on to another, relevant, committee and in October the good news arrived on Charlewood's doormat.

Letter dated 29 October 1954 from County Planning Department, East Borough, Wimborne Dear Sir, Planning Application No. 404835 Proposed site for Church, Bournemouth Road, West Parley On the 19 August, Town Planning consent was granted to use the land for the above purpose subject to a condition that "no vehicular access shall be constructed into Bournemouth Road, A. 347". This matter has now been fully considered by the Roads and Bridges Committee of the County Council who have made the following recommendation to the East Planning Sub-Committee :- "that as the access to the Church from the Estate Road would not be very suitable and as the site is situated on a bend of the Bournemouth Road where danger might arise from waiting vehicles, it could be overcome by providing a hardened forecourt of a depth of at least 40' adjoining the Bournemouth Road, entry to which should be 20' wide and that any hedge or fence on each side thereof should not exceed 3' in height above road level" In view of this recommendation the East Planning Sub-Committee are prepared to reconsider the matter should you submit a formal application on these lines. This could be done either by a fresh application on the lines of the one previously submitted or it could be left until such time as the detailed plans of the Church are prepared, but I would recommend the former to be the best policy. Yours faithfully H D Abbott Area Planning Officer.

We have come to the end of this page, I will leave you to guess what policy the PCC adopted. There are some things worthy of note in the letter; what is now called New Road is still referred to as Bournemouth Road; note the width of the entrance, bear this in mind next time you are in St Marks. And those of you that park half on the pavement and half on the Bournemouth Road should take heed of the Committee's observations regarding waiting vehicles. The road is even busier now.

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¹For those who would like to look at some other background documents an appendix is available for viewing.