Review: A history of St. Mary's Church

Prior to the main talk there was a Mayor’s reception where family, friend and colleagues of the late Peter Allen gathered to reminisce. Refreshments and food was supplied by St. Mary’s Church. There was in excess of 60 people present on Saturday evening for a talk, presented by Bill Butler and Rev. Tom Moffatt, on the “History of St. Mary’s Church.” Bill talked about the history of St. Mary’s Church starting in around 675AD whilst Tom related local events to what was happening in the wider Church community at the time.

The talk was illustrated with slides showing how St. Mary’s Church itself has evolved over the centuries resulting in what we see today, which is largely a Victorian reconstruction, or as Tom put it, “Victorian Vandalism.” Bill did note that during renovation work medieval paintings were found underneath the modern (Victorian) paint work and that the main doorway into the Church is still the original Norman doorway, almost 1000 years old.

Dr Nick Young wrapped up the talk with a tribute to Peter. Nick said that he had asked many people about what they remembered about Peter including looking through the Facebook page set-up by Jess Williams in his memory which holds over 2000 members. Some of his ex-pupils had commented about sayings Peter had such as “don’t look at me in that tone of voice, it smells a funny colour.” Despite who you ask common things kept cropping up, “a respected man”, “a dedicated man”, “a family man”, “a community man”, “a fantastic teacher”, “the man who got me through school”, “someone I could talk to” and “Thatchams historian”. Nick wanted to sum Peter up in one word and said that people had so many words, but one stood out above the rest. That word, “LEGEND.”