Title:
SOUTH OCKENDON UNITED REFORMED (FORMERLY CONGREGATIONAL) CHURCH
Level: Category
Congregational (later United Reformed) Church records
Level: Fonds
SOUTH OCKENDON UNITED REFORMED (FORMERLY CONGREGATIONAL) CHURCH
Scope and Content:
The original chapel was built in North Road, South Ockendon, in 1812. It became known as the Cherry Orchard congregational church, but was renamed Christ Church in 1961. After the second World War the Congregationalists became active in the London County Council estate at Belhus Park. Canteen huts were obtained in Easington Way for the use of the church from 1956-1960.
A new church was opened in Afton Way in 1965. The old site on North Road was sold at this time. In 1972 the church joined the United Reformed Church.
A Sunday School was held by the Congregationalists in the British School adjoining the North Road chapel from the mid-nineteenth century. They bought the building in 1908. The purchase money was put in trust and the income used for prices for schoolchildren. A new Sunday School was built in 1927.
John Cliff's bread charity was established by his will in 1832 to provide loaves of bread for the 'pious poor' on his birthday. In the 1970s the income was transferred to the Over-60s Club for Christmas dinners.
See also: Victoria County History vol. VII pp 124-126 and A Historical Sketch of South Ockendon Congregational Church by S D Challis and J W Scamell (1912); both available at the Essex Record Office