Friends of Woodthorpe Grange Park 2023
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St. Martin’s Church, Sherwood
Last month the brief report of the Laying of the Foundation Stone of the permanent St. Martin’s Church, Sherwood, Nottingham concluded with a promise to give fuller details of “this great adventure in Church Extension in Nottingham.” “Great Adventure” may possibly be regarded, when the details are known, as an extravagant expression to describe the process of Church Extension which has follow a very normal and orthodox method of stage by stage from “tin tabernacle and a man” to a large and permanent Church Hall and now to the first part of the permanent Church itself.
It has often been asked why Sherwood did not exhibit a really adventurous sprit and begin by providing for the children a Church School with all the classrooms surrounding a Central Hall which could be converted into a Church on Sundays. This method was certainly considered, but the Hadlow Scheme naturally suggests that the parochial system is not the ideal grouping for primary education, whilst as far as Sherwood was concerned a very progressive Education Committee had already, as part of the Municipal Town Planning Scheme in this area made excellent and adequate provision. The two schools on the Sherwood Estate cost £70,000 approximately, and these only cater for Juniors and Senior girls! Financial considerations and the impossibility of obtaining a site sufficiently large finally ruled out this method of attack. In passing, we may add that we use the Council Schools on Sundays for instructing our children in the Faith.
The record of Church Extension in Sherwood is roughly the history of three buildings erected to serve the new housing area. In 1926 when Sherwood was made a Conventional District with a population of 9,000 there existed a temporary structure, built at a time of high building prices for nearly £1,000. To this the Diocese had contributed £200, and there remained a debt of £450. This was cleared by a very ordinary method of a Sale of Work. Meanwhile the Diocesan Authorities had provided a site for the permanent Church in Trevose Gardens, a pleasant cul-de-sac close to but convenient from the busy traffic on Mansfield Road. Here a brick building, which will serve as the Church Hall in the future, was erected in 1927 at a cost of £4,500. Again the diocese gave a generous grant of £2,000 from the Jessop Bequest Fund for the Hall and relieved financial anxiety by an equally generous loan of £1,000 from the Loan Fund to be paid back by yearly instalments. This the progress of the Church Extension at Sherwood owes much to the Diocesan Church Extension Committee. It has not been carved out and equipped a parish complete with Church, School and Vicarage but has followed the principle that the Dioceses “helps those that helps themselves,” making itself responsible first for the “living agent.”
