The History of the parish of Poringland and Loddon

The church in Poringland dates back to 1943, when Geoffrey Birkbeck, the then owner of The White House (now part of the Diocesan Office complex) offered his artist's studio as a place of worship to a congregation of about a dozen people. Mr Birkbeck turned his pictures round, back to front so that there would be no distractions, and during Mass he rang the bell, took the collection, and served. Mrs Birkbeck would take restless children into the kitchen for a biscuit.

Mass was celebrated in Loddon for the first time in 1948, by a priest from Beccles parish, in a hut behind the Swan Public House. After six months Mass moved to the Old Town Hall with a congregation of 15 people and shortly after that in 1949 it was moved again to the room above the St. John Ambulance store, with Mass said by a priest from Norwich.

In Poringland in 1949 Mr Birkbeck had the chapel of the Annunciation built in the form of a Roman Basilica with a rounded apse which was filled by a Sardinian altar in turquoise and gold with eight large candlesticks to match, two gilded angels, gold starts in a blue sky on the underside of the baldachino and a handsome altar frontal embroidered with flowers and parrots. The matching ornate Pascal stand, refurbished by Pat Hopkins, remains in our present new church building as a reminder of those days.

Mr. Birkbeck died in 1954 and when his widow decided to leave in 1960 she gave the White House and Chapel to the Diocese of Northampton, of which we were a part at that time. The House became home to Charles Grant, Bishop of Alinda, Auxiliary to the Bishop of Northampton and during his stay the first Poringland RC Parish Council was formed to help with the upkeep of the chapel.

When Bishop Grant was appointed to Northampton, the retiring Bishop, Leo Parker, came to live at the White House. The congregation was growing so Bishop Parker had the annexe built - without the committee being consulted in any way until the new wing was finished and then he informed us that we would be required to meet the entire cost! This together with the redecoration of the original chapel came to £2,682.14s.1d, a large sum for such a small number of people to find.

The committee set to with a will and many fund raising events were planned, the first of which was a cheese and wine party held in the White House at a cost of 5/- per head, including 2 free drinks, and raffle tickets were sold at 1/- each. This event made £38.11s.9d - many more events were needed! By the 1968 AGM, attended by 28 people, the debt had been reduced to £1,282.00.

Alan Clarke, the new auxiliary Bishop of Northampton, came to live at the White House in 1969, after Bishop Parker had retired to Buckinghamshire, and the parish AGM in that year was attended by 40 parishioners (come for a look at the new man!). After raising £1,569.00 towards the debt, (no mean feat), Bishop Clarke made new financial arrangements for the Parish which relieved it of the remaining £1,113.00 debt. The wastepaper and rag collecting, a good source of income then, was discontinued!

In spite of being concerned about finances, the reverent celebration of the Mass and the spiritual well being of the Parish were always a priority. When he was at home, Bishop Clarke said the Sunday Mass, at other times we were served by a Priest from St. John's or St. George's churches. Confessions were heard once a month and we went to St. John's church for services such as Good Friday, Easter Vigil, etc.

By 1970 the Mass average at Poringland was 66 and the numbers at Loddon were growing. As we now had a group of young children in the congregation, Catechetical classes were started and it was a great day when First Holy Communion was celebrated in the Parish and everyone looked forward to the time when all the sacraments would be possible. Altar boys were trained, an Altar Society was formed, the bell in the cupola above the Chapel was refurbished, we bought a new Missal and Mass books, Stephen Restieaux of Norwich made us a new oak lectern (cost £35) to be used by the male readers, and Monica Thirkettle played the harmonium.

In 1972 the Sardinian Altar and Baldachino were removed as they were badly worm-eaten and, in any case, were incompatible with the new rite. The design for the new altar was by Tony Whitwood, and made by John Woods (Masons) of Norwich with the bill for this work of £900 being shared between Bishop Clarke and the parishioners. On Palm Sunday 1973 the new altar was consecrated, a truly memorable occasion.

Although we referred to ourselves as a 'Parish' we were not officially designated as such for quite sometime. However, the numbers attending Mass at Poringland grew steadily and eventually a Saturday evening Mass was arranged to accommodate more people. By March 1972 we had a total of 79 on the Parish Register.

In June 1976 Bishop Clarke became the first Bishop of East Anglia amid great rejoicing that 'our man' had been chosen to lead the new diocese. Father John Smith was appointed as Bishop's secretary and as our Parish Priest and at long last we were an official parish. Over 50 people attended the November 1976 AGM - coming to inspect the new man again! Father John lived in Rectory Lane but later moved to the Lodge at the end of the drive to the White House and this became the parish house. Father Roy Gathercole, Father Gary Dowsey, Father James Walsh and Father Paul Maddison followed Father John Smith, and the congregation continued to grow.

After a flood in 1979, the Loddon congregation moved to St. John's Methodist Chapel and in 1995 when the Local Ecumenical Project was formed the Catholics, Anglicans and Methodists began to work together and share the Methodist Chapel and the Anglican Church for their services.

 Bishop Peter Smith took over from Bishop Alan Clarke on his retirement and, in September 1997, he  appointed Father John Warrington as Bishop's secretary and our parish priest. It was at this time that due to the increasing congregation and the prospect of a large number of homes being built in the area the parish began to think about the future of the church building. There were many feasibility studies, budgeting and financial reports, meetings with architects, builders and many other professionals and of course the inevitable variety of fund raising schemes and events, as well as appeals to Charitable Trust Funds.

The culmination of all the hard work done by the parish community over five years resulted in the new church building, incorporating the original Chapel, becoming a reality in December 2002. The handing over of the keys was a most exciting occasion and it was a great joy to be able to celebrate Midnight Mass and Christmas Day services in a church that was able to accommodate the many people who attended

Canon Michael Evans was appointed our new Bishop on February 14th 2003 some 14 months after Bishop Peter became Archbishop of Cardiff, now Archbishop of Southwark, and later that same year Father John moved to Peterborough and Father Mark Hackeson was appointed Bishop's secretary and is our present Parish Priest. It's good to know that Archbishop Peter is still helping our fund raising efforts - or is it the other way around - as his name keeps being drawn out as a winner of our 100-Club draw!

From small beginnings and with the generous help and commitment of many people over the past sixty-three years the parish has grown to what we know today. There are many volunteers who take Holy Communion to the sick, read at Mass, arrange flowers, clean the church, look after the fabric of the church, and do the many jobs needed in a thriving parish. We are indebted to the group of volunteers who turn up regularly on Thursday mornings and convert odd bits of scrap metal and wood into stages for our shows, barrows for moving chairs, wardrobes and cupboards for the Sacristy, bookshelves and notice boards for the Narthex and 101 other jobs of repair and maintenance. These volunteers are indeed filled with the spirit - apart from the times when they have to have their coffee without it because of the bottle being empty.

The enthusiasm of the parish community towards fund raising continues just as strongly as before and still continues. The total cost of the building was £325,000 and in September 2006 there was only £45,000 outstanding, so it is estimated that the debt will be cleared by 2008 - although there is a dangerous rumour about starting to raise more money for the second phase of building a kitchen and meeting rooms, perhaps it will pass!

Please do visit the rest of this website and find out more about our parish at the present time, and if you wish to come and visit us at Poringland you will be most welcome.

To bring the history up to date, it is wonderful to be able to report that in April 2007 the debt to pay off the new church has been cleared. £325,000 has been raised several years ahead of the forcasted date! So now we will be holding a parish meeting to discuss the way forward, items on the agenda will include 'whether or not' and 'how or where' to build on a confessional, and/or kitchen and/or meeting room.

Of course, all of that will be reported here when it becomes history.

Judith Sykes, parishioner since 1963.

(With thanks to parishioners who have contributed to this history)