Our Story
There’s a lot of history to our striking building and the church family behind it, take a look at our journey below.
Procession along Norman Road on St Augustine's day.
The early years of St Augustine of Hippo
Having successfully conducted a regular mission in the High Rd., St.John's clergy decided something more permanent was needed in this area. A site in Mayville Rd. was purchased for £130 and an iron building provided in 1886.The mission church of St. Augustine of Hippo was founded when this was replaced by a brick built church, the foundation stone being laid in 1888 on August 11th.
This was served by St. John's clergy. In 1893 Archdeacon Bayne became curate in charge, the first named priest for this church. He was soon succeeded by the Rev. W. Walker who served from 1894 to 1916 and established a ritualistic tradition. About this time a vestry was added to the side of the church.
Now well established, the church felt the need to expand and bought an adjoining site facing on to Lincoln St. in 1897.
Plans were drawn up for a new, larger church by Messrs Bottle and Olley of Yarmouth and were accepted The little church of St. Augustine must have been thriving to consider a new, larger building after only 10 years. In 1901 the foundation stone was laid by the Bishop of Barking.
Rev. Walker who served for over 21 years in charge, oversaw the rebuilding and transition to the new church. His work in the parish was acknowledged with a presentation in the 21st year of his ministry.
Although St. Augustine's, along with churches everywhere, had lost the great numbers attending at the beginning of the 20th century, it was still flourishing, particularly amongst young people. The Sunday School filled both the hall and the church at 3pm on Sundays. The Kindergarten in the hall was lead by Miss Margaret Digby. The babies section occupied the side room and was taught by Miss Beryl Dart. There were over 25 in this class alone.
On Ascension Day children were allowed a half-day holiday from school to attend church if their parents signed the form provided. It only lasted from 9- 10am and then you were free until afternoon school at 2pm. It's amazing how popular this service was!
Three annual Sunday School events recalled by many are the Christmas party and prize giving, the seaside outing in the summer and the concert in the autumn.
Holy Trinity church was dedicated to the Most Holy Trinity, by the Bishop of St. Albans, Dr. Claughton on 9th July 1978.
The early years of Holy Trinity
Having started their missions of outreach in various parts of the parish, the clergy of St. John's soon realised that more was needed than just open-air services, especially in wintertime. In 1874, through the initiation of the vicar of Leytonstone, the Rev. Bettison, and the Rector of Wanstead, the Rev. Fitzgerald, an iron church was erected in Birkbeck Rd. (The Rector of Wanstead was involved as a large swathe of Leytonstone on the east side of the High Rd., known as the Wanstead slip, belonged to the parish of Wanstead.) A mission priest, Rev H. J. Battiscombe, was appointed.
The services were so well attended that a committee was set up for the purpose of building a permanent church. £6,000 was raised in 2 years and plans were drawn up for a permanent church seating 800, as even now the population was still growing. The new church was built of plain brick in the early English style consisting of nave, aisles, and chancel elevated six steps, with finely timbered open roof. After a fire in 1892, the chancel roof was restored and beautifully painted with a dove depicted at the apex amid golden rays and various emblems on the panels below.
On 9th July 1878 the church was consecrated by Dr. Claughton, Bishop of St. Albans and dedicated to the Holy Trinity. By various means £300 per annum was secured for the living. Soon after, a large parsonage was built costing £2,000 and a parish room with two classrooms at a cost of £2,200. The Rev. Battiscombe became the first vicar in 1879 when Holy Trinity became a separate parish, the first to be formed from parts of the parish of St. John's. The date of the church's dedication was kept as a festival annually for as long as the church was in existence. The parish was much larger then than at the present time incorporating parts of Leytonstone, Wanstead Slip and West Ham. Throughout the late 19th and early 20th centuries the original parish of Leytonstone was divided many times as the area changed from country village to an urban district. The parish was then in the diocese of St. Albans. In 1894 the Rev. C. H. Rogers became the parish priest. By the time Fr. Sawyer became vicar in 1904 we see Holy Trinity as thriving parish with its own mission church, St Alban's in Leslie Road.
The church was very much at the heart of the community and a large number of organisations were centred around it. There was a large choir and many altar servers, some of whom belonged to the Guild of the Sanctuary. There were women's meetings and youth groups. There was a thriving Sunday School. It met twice on Sundays, morning and afternoon. The supervisor of the afternoon school was Mr. Slade who later became the first Mayor of Leyton. Miss Woodlands who was the parish lady worker helped with the morning sessions. One old record states that at one time there were 75 teachers and over 1,000 children in the Sunday Schools. The Holy Trinity Athletics club was formed by Mr. Arthur Smith in the early part of the century. An old newspaper photograph showed it had over 40 members - all men!
Unlike St. Augustine's nearby, Holy Trinity had escaped any war damage' in 1914 - 1918 and life went on as usual. There was great sadness however over the tremendous loss of life in the Great War. The parish church and its mission, St. Alban's, were both thriving. The church was involved in considerable outreach work and the clergy, in cassocks and birettas, could often be seen visiting.
The laying of the foundation stone of the new Harrow Green Parish Church by the Bishop of Barking the Rt Rev William Chadwick on 8th April 1973.
Also in the picture:
L-R Mable Woodyard, Doreen Atkins, Alf Snow and Reg Sampson, the four churchwardens.
A new Church in a time of change
Suddenly the news was out. A massive regeneration programme was planned for the south of the borough and the two churches, along with lots of the parishioners' homes, were in the front line. About the same time the two parishes had merged and Fr. Pearce was vicar of Harrow Green and still in charge of St. Augustine's.
At first the area for development was to extend from Harrow Green, right up to the Midland railway at the top of Granleigh Rd. However after many meetings between council and homeowners, it stopped short on the south side of Lincoln St, but included the land on which St. Augustine's stood. It was decided that one new church would be better than two old ones. Not everyone agreed.
On 29th September 1970 the P.C.C met at Holy Trinity to vote on the proposal by the diocese that the church should become redundant and that Fr. Pearce should oversee the building of a new church. The vote, amid some misgivings, was 'to go ahead'. Holy Trinity closed in 1973 and was demolished to make way for flats built by a property developer. For a while the whole congregation used St. Augustine's for services. Not being a wealthy parish, Fr. Pearce was anxious that no financial burden was put upon the parishioners because of rebuilding. The final service to take place at St Augustine's was on Easter Sunday 1974, a sad day for all who had worshipped at the homely little church.
As was hoped, the sale of both sites did pay for the building of a new church and finances just broke even and all was well. Fr. Pearce worked closely with the architect, Gerard Golan, to achieve a building best suited to the people.
It was a very modern open plan church, designed to bring, celebrant and people together with choir stalls to one side. There was a raked floor to enhance visibility at the back. The Lady Chapel was enclosed in plate glass and could be left open for private prayer when the church was locked. The stained glass windows therein were from St. Augustine's (it is believed that originally they had come from St. Augustine's Haggerston at the time of its closure) There were very few other low windows - the body of the church being lit by skylights. The altar was made of solid marble.
