The Church Extension



For several years it had become apparent that the Church was not really large enough to accommodate the congregation, particularly during the holiday season.

The War had prevented any action being taken, and it was not until Fr. Baines came to Boscombe that practical steps were taken to meet the situation.

By 1928 Fr. Baines had launched the Church Extension fund with an anonymous gift of £3,000 (after her death it was revealed that Mrs. Cundy had been the donor).

The Church Extension became a major preoccupation of parish life for the next seven or so years. A wide range of fund raising events took place to raise contributions towards the Fund. By 1930 plans for the Extension were exhibited in the Guildhall.

The scheme adopted was for the widening of the side aisles, extension of the nave by two bays, a new Lady chapel and new sacristies. There was to be a tower at the west end of the nave. The estimated cost of the work was £15,000 - a very considerable sum in those days.

Work on the Extension began in August 1932. The south aisle and the Lady Chapel and the sacristy were boarded off and demolished. The Nuns' chapel was converted into a temporary sacristy.

This instalment of the building was completed by Easter 1933, when the new Lady Chapel and sacristies were taken into use.

The next stage was the boarding off of the north aisle, and later the west end of the nave. The whole of the Extension was completed by the end of 1933.

The Extension was blessed by Mgr. T. Cotter, Bishop of Portsmouth on the 22nd April 1934.

The Building contract was for £12,000, plus Architect's Fees, and the Clerk of Works; these amounting to £1,060. There were several additional items, including the windows of the Lady Chapel and those of the Tower, amounting to £992; the cost of these windows was met by individual donations.

Other extras amounted to £1,280, all of these also being covered by donation. Including the cost of the new organ and the new approach to the Church, to total cost of the work amounted to £16,777.



The Church Extension, whilst it occupied a large place in the life of the Parish, did not dominate the whole. There were, in fact, a range of other activities. Perhaps one of the outstanding activities was the formation by Fr. Baines of the Corpus Christi Players.

The Players were founded in 1928 and started relatively small scale by presenting one act plays in the Guildhall. In 1929 a bold step was taken by the performance of Henri Gheon's play 'The Marvellous History of St. Bernard'. This was performed out of doors on the presbytery lawn with two performances on succeeding Sundays. It was produced jointly by Fr. Baines and Miss M. Mewitt, with Fr. Baines painting the scenery.

From this developed a series of annual religious dramas all performed on the lawn, and as time went by the number of performances increased to 8.

When the foundations of the church tower were excavated, the earth was moved to one end of the lawn to form a permanent stage, and some floodlighting was installed. One of the objects which Fr. Baines had in mind in forming the players was to foster social contact within the parish, and the plays had large casts.

Even so, to involve more players Fr. Baines (pictured above) on some occasions himself wrote additional scenes. Another scheme which Fr. Baines wished to encourage was one day or week-end retreats. He enlarged the presbytery by adding a large chapel for this purpose. When it came on the market he bought a large house called Genazzo, which stood on the site of part of the present Corpus Christi School.

However, events overtook this project, for in 1936 the Jesuits opened St. Peter's School at Southbourne, where it was easily possible to arrange retreats.

The completion of the Church Extension may perhaps be thought as the crowning work of Fr. Baines at Boscombe.

Nevertheless it came as a considerable shock to the Parish when in October 1936, it was announced that Fr. Baines was leaving to become Rector of his old school, Mount St. Mary's College near Chesterfield. Apparently some last minute hitch had taken place requiring Fr. Baines to take up the Rectorship at very short notice.

His successor at Boscombe was Fr. Walter Gibbons, from Liverpool. He, in his turn, had been moved to Boscombe at a few days notice. As it so happened much of the time of Fr. Gibbons was taken up in the development of the new St. Thomas More Church at Iford.

The whole area at Iford had recently been extensively developed and a site had been earmarked for a Catholic Church. The foundation stone of the new church was laid by Bishop Cotter in the autumn of 1938; the completed church was formally opened in the summer of 1939.

It was served from Corpus Christi by Fr. Philip Widdowson (pictured left) for the ensuing seven years. Under Fr. Gibbons parish life continued to flourish until the commencement of the War in September 1939.

Many activities had to be closed or at least diminished during the War.

John Young, DMA

NOTE.
John Young died in March 2007. His funeral was held in Corpus Christi church.