Centenary of Wood Street’s First Place of Worship, my Baptism Link with It and the Revd Deedes and his Family

Published on: 16 Jun, 2025
Updated on: 17 Jun, 2025

By David Rose

This year is the centenary of the building and dedication of the first proper place of worship in Wood Street – June 20, 1925.

I have a small link to that first church as I was baptised there in 1960.

I have two family photos featuring me as a baby with my mum along with the then curate and his wife with their child. I’ve now done some research and found details about them, but more of that later!

The first mission hall / church at Wood Street on Oak Hill, pictured in about the 1930s as a picture postcard. David Rose collection.

In 1924 the parish of Worplesdon’s parochial church council (PCC) bought a piece of land opposite the Royal Oak pub at Oak Hill, Wood Street, from a Mr Steer for £140, on which to build a place of worship.

Anthony Hilllard, who has been a key member of the Anglican parish of Worpesdon for many years, and who was a long-standing GP at the Fairlands practice, recalls that the PCC always had residents from Wood Street serving on it, with several being church wardens.

Anthony points out that although advice was taken by the Wood Street Social Affairs Committee, the building of a place of worship at Wood Street was very much a parish undertaking.

In February 1925, the PCC met at Perry Hill School and decided to build a mission hall on the site it had purchased at Wood Street.

An interior view of Wood Street’s dual purpose mission hall / church. David Rose collection.

This building, timber framed with asbestos cement panelling and a corrugated iron roof, cost £643, and was constructed in nine weeks. Heating, costing £76, was installed the following year.

The dual purpose mission hall / church was dedicated on June 20, 2025 by the then Archdeacon of Surrey, the Revd Lionel Blackburne.

Capt Wallis of the Church Army had been appointed in 1924 by the Rector of Worplesdon, the Revd Bruce, to be a full-time “missioner” for Wood Street. He served for three years, the first of a long line of curates, who were based there.

Anthony adds that the mission hall / church was used for worship and other events, but as Captain Wallis was not a priest it seems unlikely there were communion services during his tenure.

The second Bishop of Guildford, the Rt Revd John Victor Macmillan.

On February 23, 1937, that mission hall / church was re-dedicated as St Alban’s Church. The dedication was by the then second Bishop of Guildford, the Rt Revd John Victor Macmillan.

Although Anthony Hillard believes it is not recorded why it was originally dedicated to St Alban, he says there are obvious clues.

The feast day of St Alban, the first English martyr, is June 22, and the mission hall / church was originally dedicated and declared open on June 20, 1925. Therefore the name, St Alban, may have been attached, so to speak, then or some time soon after.

Another reason may be that someone at Eton College, the Parish of Worplesdon’s patron, may have noticed the college was also a patron of an old church in Wood Street in the City of London, which just happened to have been dedicated to St Alban.

Sadly, that church was destroyed during the Second World War during the Blitz.

Today’s St Alban’s Church, built in 1967.

Wood Street’s mission hall / church building was replaced by the current St Alban’s Church in 1967. It was designed by David Nye and built by Jackson & Goucher at a cost of £16,312 and 17 shillings.

The fifth Bishop of Guildford, the Rt Revd George Reindorp.

It was dedicated by the fifth Bishop of Guildford, the Rt Revd George Reindorp, on December 22, 1967.

My baptism at the original St Alban’s Church was on April 17, 1960, which happened to be Easter Sunday.

My aunt, Christine Greaves, and her husband Bert, lived at 32 Frog Grove Lane. Known to all as Chris, she was one of my mum’s sisters and she worshipped at St Alban’s, and therefore arranged for the curate to baptise me.

David Rose’s baptism card.

My baptism card reads that I was baptised by “A. C. B. Deedes, Priest-in-charge”.

The Revd Deedes holding me (David Rose) and his wife, Anne, holding their child, Alison.

I have two small black and white photos, one of which shows the Revd Deedes holding me and his wife holding their child, who was about the same age as me.

The other photo shows my mum holding me and Mrs Deedes holding her and her husband’s child.

My mum, Freda Rose (left), holding me (David Rose) and Anne Deedes holding her and her husband’s daughter, Alison.

I recall my mum telling me that for some years she kept in contact with the Revd Deedes and his wife after they had moved on from St Alban’s Church. This was by Christmas and birthday cards for me and their child.

In an old address book I have, their address is written as “The Vicarage, Fleet, Hampshire”.

Now, with the benefit of the genealogy website Findmypast, I have traced them before coming to the parish of Worplesdon and some details after…

Arthur Colin Bouverie Deeds was born in 1927. On the 1939 UK Register he was a pupil at Cottesmore School, Hove.

Graduating with a BA degree from Bede Collage, Durham University, he then attended Wells Theological College.

The Portsmouth Evening News of August 12, 1953, reported the Revd Deedes had been appointed to the parish of St James’s, Milton, Hampshire.

Portsmouth Evening News’s report of the marriage of Mr and Mrs Deedes.

In its edition of September 8, 1958, the Portsmouth Evening News reported he had married Anne Elizabeth Weeks at St James’s Church, Milton, adding that he was soon to take up his post as curate-in-charge at “Wood Street, Worplesdon, near Guildford”.

His wife was born in 1933 in the Totnes area of Devon.

A daughter, Alison, was born in the first quarter of 1960.

I was born on December 23, 1959. And, thinking back to what my mum once told me, that Easter Sunday in 1960 saw us two babies baptised at St Alban’s Church. And those two photos were most likely taken on that day.

The parish of Worplesdon’s list of “curates, with special responsibilities for Wood Street”, notes that the Revd Deedes was among the clergy in Worplesdon parish from 1958-60.

From there he became the vicar of All Saints’ Church, Fleet, Hampshire, which is within the Diocese of Guildford.

I have traced a story from the Surrey Advertiser of August 31, 1973, reporting that the Revd Jocelyn Pratchitt Grundy, of St James’s Church, Shere, had been appointed as vicar to All Saints’ Church in Fleet, in “succession of the Revd Arthur Colin Bouverie Deedes”.

The final piece of information I have found is that the curate who baptised me all those years ago died on October 15, 2013 in the Winchester area.

Thanks to Anthony Hillard for his notes on the early history of the mission hall /church, and thanks also the parish’s administrator Michaela Kelly who kindly supplied the list of “curates, with special responsibilities for Wood Street”.

Here is that list…

Curates of Worplesdon with special responsibility for Wood Street.

Capt. Wallis (Church Army, Licensed Reader) 1924-1927

The Revd. Elliott Ostrehan Iredell 1927-1930

The Revd. George Ernest Robinson 1930-1934

The Revd. Leslie Darby Jones 1934-1936

The Revd. Charles Louis Bell 1936-1942

The Revd. William Ancel Martin Langdon 1942- 1945

The Revd. Thomas Brynmor Davies 1946-1948

The Revd. Edward Wynn Jones 1948-1953

The Revd. John William Wilson 1953-1958

The Revd. Arthur Colin Bouverie Deedes 1958-1960