St Augustine's (the Tin Church)
With the growth of Addlestone, Surrey, in the 1880's it was decided a new church and school were needed on the Weybridge side of the railway station, so a stone building fulfilling both role's was built by the side of the river Bourne in Alexander Road.
In 1891 it was decided that this building was too small to be both church and school so a seperate new church was built and conscreated nearby in on Weybridge Road. This new building soon became known as "the tin church" as it was made almost entirely from iron.
Fourty eight years later in 1939 the Tin church was replaced by a brick built church next to the still functioning original school in Alexander Road (the school continued to be used for education until 1967). In 2005, with a deminishing congregation at St Augustine's, the Church of England decided that Addlestone no longer needed two churches & in 2006 St Augustine's was sold to become a Muslim Study Centre.
St Augustine's Brick Church - 2007
The Memorial Scroll of the 1914-1919 Great War initialy hung in the tin church but when that closed it was moved to the new brick church where it proudly hung on the West wall until February 2006, when St Augustine's church closed its doors to Christian worship for the last time. When the church closed it was decided not to re-hang the memorial in St Pauls, the main Church of England church in Addlestone, and following a request from my father, the grandson of the carpenter who made it, the memorial was given to my family and knowing my passion for the Great War my father passed it to me. The reason that the the memorial was not re-hung in St Paul's is that St Paul's has its own memorial to the dead of The Great War. The Rood Screen in St Pauls has, engraved on stone tablets, the same names that are found on the memorial.
Last Service at St Augustine's showing memorial on the West Wall
Last service photo courtesy of St Paul's Church, Addlestone