St Andrew’s - Your Church

The Building of St Andrew's Church

The land was donated by Basil Pym Ellis of the Bevendean Estate. Until then, the local services were held in the old barn adjoining Birds Hill farmhouse where the Royal Kent School had its origins. So all three school sites in Oxshott (for Bevendean School was bought by Danes Hill School in the early 1980s and turned into its Junior Department) had close connections with the founding of the church, as indeed they still do today.

The first church was built of wood and corrugated iron, so it was cheap and quickly provided, and indeed in use by November 21st 1907. Intended as a temporary building, it actually remained in constant use until 1969! Just across Oakshade Road (still a grassy track in 1907) was the Oxshott Men's Club, then one year old.

The temporary church had been designed to seat 120, but by Easter Day 1909, 190 people crowded in to Holy Communion. The result was an appeal:

"Christianity is the strongest social bond in the world: yet not even the strongest society can exist without opportunities for assembling and meeting should be adequate for the requirement of the congregation, choir and clergy. This is manifestly not the case at Oxshott. An influential committee of residents recognize this urgent need and whole-heartedly support this appeal."

It is significant that the initiative had not come from some outside missionary zeal, but from the roots of the community itself. Many of the new ideas and developments in the life of the church still come from the laity.

The church was consecrated on March 12th 1912. Its curate, Norman Skene, said to the congregation:

"Only one thing was wanted to make Oxshott a perfect village - our beautiful church. Let us all now strive together to build up the spiritual church in our midst so that Oxshott may become in the eyes of God a perfect village."

Again, the emphasis was on the life in the village, not the congregation in the church. The building was only there as the resource centre for the love of Christ to reach every part of village life.

As the church expanded its service to the growing village, the Bishop of Winchester (then, as for centuries, the local bishop) was approached to separate Oxshott from Stoke d'Abernon and make it a parish in its own right. Again the villagers came up with the necessary money (for the endowment and to contribute towards a vicar's salary, or stipend) and on St Andrew's Day, December 1st 1913, Oxshott became an ecclesiastical parish for the first time in its long history.

Office Address:

Oakshade Road

Oxshott

Surrey

KT22 0LE