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William Henry Morton became rector on
He made an immediate impact on Purley and the people flooded back to church. He was described by one parishioner as handsome and tall and was well loved as a pastor. The congregation were shattered and many moved to tears when he announced his resignation only five years after his appointment. He explained however that he felt that after more than four years in a parish, his major work was done and if he stayed any longer he would become stale.
There had been an old man on the River Estate who was an atheist and who never wanted to see Mr Morton when he came around visiting but he always made it plain that he had come around to see how he was rather than persuade him to come to church. When the old man fell very sick and was on the point of death he called for Mr Morton and asked him to say a prayer for him, because he felt that if he had been able to persevere for so long then there musty be something in it.
After his spell at Purley he was successively Vicar of Arthington and Rector of Collyweston before he retired in 1969. He remained in the Peterborough Diocese until 1974 when he moved back to Derby.
Harold Hawkins was ordained in 1927 and served as curate of St Luke's Maidenhead until 1929 when he obtained his L.Th. from the University of Durham. He served successively as curate of Brandon (1929-30) and the Church of the Venerable Bede, Monkwearmouth (1930-31). He returned south in 1931 obtaining a licence to Officiate. He had a longer spell as curate of St Peter's Norbiton from 1932 to 1935 when he obtained his first parish as vicar of Farndon in the diocese of Southwark. He served there until 1950 when he was made vicar of Nazeing where he stayed until his appointment to Purley.
One of his first acts was to restart the parish magazine. He and his wife Nellie became very well known and did a lot of visiting around the parish together. They were a very sociable couple, well known for their humour and prowess on the piano. Harold wrote a short history of the church in 1966, putting together material gathered by William Fisher, a former secretary of the PCC. During the latter part of his ministry it was decided to build a new rectory and sell the existing site for building what became Westridge Avenue and Allison Gardens.
Harold's health deteriorated and he retired to live in Pangbourne in May 1969. As a leaving present he and his wife were presented with a new carpet. He died a few years later and in 1984 his children gave a pair of candlesticks to the church in his memory.
All Saint's Nottingham, and at Binley.
He was keenly interested in getting a new church hall built
and began his ministry by establishing a five year development plan which
clearly identified the shortcomings of the existing buildings. His first idea was to demolish the old church
and re-assemble it at the corner of New Hill and Oxford Road. This was greeted with horror and the
impracticability of it was soon evident.
However Colonel Hugh Duncan, the owner of Purley Park, gave the church a
quarter of an acre on which to build a church hall.
A number of bitter disputes broke out about several matters and eventually the Sunday School broke away from the church, moving to the Memorial Hall as the Young Followers of Jesus and a new one was reformed at the church. It took many years for the bitterness to subside.
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