Diocese discusses St Andrew's sale

The announcement that the Grade-II listed St Andrew’s church could pass to Bradfield College to help fund a modern building in the centre of the village was broken to parishoners in recent weeks.
Priest in charge of the parishes of Bradfield, Bucklebury and Stanford Dingley, the Rev Julian Gadsby, said that the Diocese of Oxford had been in talks with Bradfield College and that plans to build a new church on the site of St Peter’s in Southend Road had also been discussed.
He said: “St Peter’s has served the parish well for almost 50 years. The congregation is steadily growing, especially among young families. However, the building is too small and no longer matches our needs. At the same time, St Andrew’s church is really too large for our needs and is increasingly expensive to maintain and heat, especially in the winter. It is plain that we cannot adequately maintain two churches.
“It’s very early days and we’ve just announced the plans to the congration and in the parish magazine. There will be a very long process before anything actually happens. We’re looking at the future of the church in the parish and the [church council] thought this was the right thing to go forward with. There will be a period of consultation involving the congregation and the local community at the right time.”
However, concerns over the loss of a traditional village church have been raised by Bradfield resident Andrew Parker, who said he was appalled by the plans.
Mr Parker, who joined the church choir shortly after moving to the village 37 years ago, also expressed concerns about the future of the graveyard.
“The graveyard is a very serious issue as it could be deconsecrated. It’s where most of the villagers are buried and where I plan to be buried myself, so you can’t have a ‘coffee shop’ church in the middle of a graveyard and I don’t think the reason behind it is very sound. I’m on the church council and have been opposing it but I don’t think I’m going to win.”
Mr Gadsby said it was up to the diocese to deal with any possible deconsecration of the buiding and he reassured parishoners that the churchyard would remain open for burials until it was full. He added that any sale of St Andrews would be handled by the diocese and that parish was not actively involved in the discussions.
St Andrew’s dates back to the 14th century but was remodelled in French Gothic style by George Gilbert Scott in the 1840s. The work was paid for by the Rev Thomas Stevens who founded Bradfield College in 1850 to provide choristers for his new church.
The headmaster, Simon Henderson, said: “It has been agreed in principle that the College could provide a good long term future for St Andrew’s Church, especially as the College has historic links with the Church and already uses it for religious services. However, no agreement has been reached and discussions are at an early stage.”