A piece of Hurst's history - The closure of St Luke's Catholic Church

By Steve Turner

The small Catholic Church at 123 Cuckfield Road, looks every bit like a house, save for the large sign saying ‘St Luke’s Catholic Church’ and the small wooden cross on the gable end of the main roof. Sandwiched between the Church owned cottages either side, it has been part of the Hurstpierpoint landscape and focal point of worship for generations of local Catholics.

Originally an Anglican meeting room, it was acquired, along with the two cottages in 1925 for the princely sum of £425, loaned by the Diocese and paid back by the parish through enthusiastic fundraising, particularly by the Stringer and Gladman families who organised dances and Whist Drives (a card game social gathering).

The altar was made and presented by the Carthusian community at the monastery near Cowfold and the sanctuary lamp given by Lady Augusta Miller, of Wanbarrow Farm. A blue and gold damask curtain hung behind the altar. Early Mass attendances were about 20/30 on a Sunday but over the years the Church has been extended and was seeing numbers of 60/70.

Extensions saw the rear wall moved back to provide a new altar space in 1928 at a cost of £700. A side chapel was built in 1963, another extension provided a sacristy and cloakroom facilities in 1959; these extensions used garden space of the two cottages either side but being Church property this wasn’t a problem.

A gallery was provided in 1958 and outer porch provided in 1965; all this work allowed more seating to be provided for the vibrant and ever-growing number of worshippers. The rear extension includes two beautiful stain glass windows, depicting ‘St Luke the painter’ and ‘St Luke the doctor’ commissioned by Mgr. Canon Jeffrey Haydn Scott in about the year 2000.

The cottages either side have provided accommodation over the years for retired housekeepers and priests alike; a well-beloved priest and first ‘Parish Priest’ Fr Stuart Bell lived at 125 from 1978 until the Priest’s House at Keymer was built in 1985. Keymer and Hurstpierpoint having been previously under the administration of St Wilfrid’s in Burgess Hill. He regularly took groups of us to Lourdes each Easter to assist with the disabled pilgrims, assisted by another local parishioner, Paddy Kite.

There have been, as you would expect, a succession of priests over the years, all contributing, whether their tenure was long or short, to the wellbeing and needs of the Parish. Canon John Stapleton is worthy of a mention for his passion for music and installing a pedal organ.

Countless numbers of unsung heroes have contributed to the successful running of the Church.

Pick up a copy of July’s Hurst Life today to read about all the other people who contributed to the beating heart of St Luke’s.

Recent information revealed on WWII Hurstpierpoint bombings

By Mary Norris

On the afternoon of Wednesday 10th February 1943 a lone bomber dropped a stick of bombs in Hurstpierpoint damaging around 100 houses, of which fourteen were evacuated overnight. 22 people spent the night away from home but with typical resilience returned home the following day and began clearing up.

Sadly, there was one fatality; Heather Christine Lamb, the four-year-old daughter of the Free Church minister, died from her injuries. She is buried in the South Avenue Cemetery in plot F64. Much has been speculated about the reason for this apparently isolated raid, both at the time and since, and until relatively recently not much was known about it.

Following the earlier London Blitz, during 1942 the German Luftwaffe targeted historic cities in retaliation for the increased effectiveness of the attacks by the RAF on German cities. This became known as the Baedeker Blitz. While it was not considered a success, attacks on more strategic targets continued, plus minor attacks on ever more isolated targets particularly in the South East. Translated German documents show that these later ‘nuisance’ raids were a deliberate policy intended to cause confusion and undermine British morale. Lewes was hit on 20th January, Battle on 2nd February, Crawley on 4th February and Bognor on 5th February. While many of these later ‘tip and run’ raids were coordinated they appear as apparently lone bombers operating at low level on so called soft targets. The raid on 10th February had penetrated as far inland as Newbury before turning South. Two planes from the flight were shot down, one near Tangmere and another at Saltdean. A third attacked Midhurst, where three civilian evacuees were killed, and a fourth attacked Hurst. From the trajectory of the flight, it would seem that the pilot was aiming for the gasometer which then stood in Western Road. Fortunately, he missed and the bombs fell between Cuckfield Road and Western Road at the rear of the Chinese Gardens.

The photograph, which was taken by my uncle, who was home on sick leave from the RAF at the time, shows what appears to be an unexploded bomb in the foreground and some of the damage to the houses in Cuckfield road. My grandparents lived at number 79, on the left of the photo and Heather lived at number 73, the detached house on the right. My husband, who was walking south of Tott Farm with his nursery school at the time, well remembers hearing the thud as the bombs exploded and on returning home to Eastrees, 117 Cuckfield Road, seeing the large patches of missing ceiling plaster in the living room.