For you information - the new St Antony with St Silas Church Building (and Community Centre) was completed in 2003, with the consecration service for the new church being held on Saturday 26th April 2003.

For further information please contact:-
The Rev'd Anthony Braddick-Southgate
The Vicar - The Parish of St. Antony with St. Silas, Nunhead

St Antony with St Silas Vicarage
Athenlay Road London SE15 3EP
email:- Cambs@aol.com
Tel: 020 7639 4261
Fax: 020 7252 8152

"S. Silas Church was situated in High Park Street, Toxteth Park, Liverpool, Lancashire (1850 - 1896). This church was erected during 1864, consecrated 1865 and in its churchmanship was low church evangelical, as indeed were most of the Anglican churches in Toxteth. Its (second?) vicar from 1873 until his death in 1908, Canon Herbert Woodward, formerly vicar of St. Clement’s (1856/7 – 73), was one of the leading evangelical churchman of his day and was very much involved in the contemporary anti-Catholic and anti-Ritualist movements. S. Silas was, I think, an Orange Lodge Church; certainly large numbers of Orange Lodge members and supporters were included amongst the thousands of Protestants who attended Woodward’s funeral. Woodward was one of the ministers who gave an address at the funeral service of John Kensit which was held at St Clement’s in 1902.
Its organ was built by Gray & Davison.
St Silas Church, Toxteth, was damaged by enemy action on 19 October 1940 and was closed for a period of more than two years; it was reopened on 6 December 1942. It remained open until 1952 and was demolished in 1954. There was a school attached to the church – I can remember being sent as a boy to the school with a message or letter by the headmaster of my own primary school. Though the old St Silas parish now forms part of the Parish of S. Philemon and is the responsibility of the Toxteth Team Ministry, there is still a S. Silas Primary school, though the old Victorian buildings were replaced some years ago by modern building". (Information from Dr. David Pope).
Ringo Starr of the Beatles attended the Church of Engand school attached to this church.
Many thanks to Paul Christian for the use of the two photographs and his excellent research of the Toxteth Churches.

The Chapel of St. Silas, Bollingham

The building is a simple layout of nave and chancel with a south porch. There is a bellcote on the west gable.

Bollingham is mentioned in the Domesday Book as "Burdardestune". The medieval name was "Bolynghull". In 1863 the Chapel of St. Silas was described as: - "a primitive building of the 13th Century, if not older".

The Chapel has a late medieval roof over rubble stone walls and was substantially rebuilt in the 19th Century. There is an ancient corbel head on the south wall.

There are two stained glass windows. The one at the west end has some good coloured glass and is a memorial to the Whitcombe family - Richard, his wife Sarah and their only son, also Richard. They owned Bollingham House, which is next to the Chapel. The house came into their possession around 1780 together with a large amount of land.

The other windows in the Chapel are clear glass with coloured borders.

The nave is stone flagged and under rush matting are ornate iron grilles. The chancel and sanctuary are tiled with encaustic tiles. The wooden pews are set on a boarded dais. The altar table is a hefty gothic style with simple paneled reredos whilst the communion rail is oak and cast iron.

The priest's stall faces a chamber organ, no longer used. The half-octagonal pulpit is stone. The font seems large for the building and is a stone octagonal shape supported on columns and set on a plinth.

Inside the door is a stone slab dedicated to Sarah Harper nee Higgins of 'Spon' (Spond) she died in 1711. Incidentally, there is a burial recorded in the Eardisley Parish Register of 1650 as, "Ann Higgins in the chapel of Bollingham buried". The entry doesn't specify where she is buried and there do not appear to be any gravestones in the churchyard.

The memorial plaque in the chancel was dated 1939 to the memory of Eleanor Martha Williams (who also lived at Bollingham House).

The brass plaque opposite the door was dedicated to Cecil Williams in 1992, in gratitude for his work here, as church warden for over 40 years.

Information from "The History of Bollingham House and the Chapel of St. Silas" compiled by L.W.R. Potter (1993-96).

The church of St Silas was erected by the Leeds Church Extension Society, at a cost of £5000, exclusive of the site. The foundation stone was laid in July 1868. It was consecrated the following year on 25th November 1869 by the Bishop of Ripon, Dr. Bickersteth. A luncheon in Wilkinson's Works followed the Consecration, and in the evening the Preacher was the Vicar of Leeds, Canon Woodford. It was situated in Goodman Street and built in the Early English style, and consisted of a pentagonal chancel, with an apsidal vestry on the north, clerestoried nave of five bays. aisles, north porch, and an open gabled belfry at the west end, 94 feet in height. The interior was rib-groined in wood, the ribs springing from banded shafts rising from a string course. It was designed to seat a congregation of 750 worshippers.

The Architect was George Corson (1829 - 1910) of South Parade, Leeds. It became redundant in 1952 and was demolished in 1956.

The first vicar was the Rev. Richard Waters until he left for Rookhope, Durham in 1873. He was succeeded by the Rev AC Downer, but left in 1878 for  the parish of Ilkley. The Rev AJ Binnie succeeded but only stayed about a year and left in November 1879.
The Rev. Canon Howard Jaggar Hammerton was Priest-in-charge of St Silas Church, Hunslet, 1947-53.

The following report is a transcript from The Architect dated Dec. 4, 1869 page 280.
Last week the new church of St Silas, Hunslet Leeds, was formally consecrated. The new church consists of a nave, aisles, and chancel, with organ chamber on the south, and vestry on the north side of the chancel. There are also at the west end two porches, entering from the north and south respectively. The nave is divided from the aisles by an arcade of five arches on each side, supported by pillars, alternatively round and quatrefoil on plan, with moulded bases and caps, the former being visible above the seats, not hid by them is usual. The space that would otherwise have formed a sixth bay to the west end, is occupied by doors from the north and south porches. The chancel is finished as an apse of five sides, with a single-light lancet in each, and stone shafts in the angles, with bases corbelled out from the wall, bands and carved caps supporting the ribs of the roof. These ribs form pointed arches spanning the chancel, and meeting in a carved boss at the centre of the apse. The chancel arch, between the nave and the chancel, springs from the caps of pillars corbelled out from the wall on each side. The caps are carved with natural foliage, the fern being used on one side and the maple on the other. The corbels are formed as shields, bordered with foliage. The principal dimensions are as follows: Nave 92 feet by 29 feet 6 inches between bases of pillars, and 62 feet high to ridge; aisles, each 79 feet by 11 feet 6 inches from wall to pillar, and 21 feet high to ridge; chancel 33 feet 4 inches by 21 feet, and 53 feet high to ridge; organ chamber, 14 feet 6 inches by 12 feet; vestry 21 feet by 16 feet; porches, each 12 feet by 10 feet; belfry, 90 feet high to the top of the cross. The contractors for the various works are as follows: Messrs. Langley and Sons, for mason work and joiner work; Messrs. Watson and Wormald, slaters; Messrs. Dawson and Son, plumbers (for whom Mr. T. Wilson did the glazing in lead); Mr Miller, plasterer; Messrs. Galloway and Son, painters; Messrs. Heaps and Robinson, for heating apparatus and smith work; Messrs. Mawer and Ingle, carving and font; Mr. Kidney, lightening conductor – all of them being Leeds tradesmen. The gas fittings, lock, hinges, and cross were supplied by Charles Smith and Sons, of Deritend, Bridge Works, Birmingham; and the tiles were laid by Charles and Taylor, of Infirmary Street, Leeds. The chancel floor within the rail, and the broad footway from the nave up to the rail, are covered with a carpet designed by the architect, and made by Messrs. Wilkinson and Co., of the Carpet Works, Hunslet, who have given it to the church. The architect is Mr. Corson , of Ledds. The organ is being built by Messrs. Radcliffe and Sagar.

Demolition plans for three Leeds churches including St Silas are reported in the Yorkshire Post dated 6 October 1954, page 6.

St. Paul with Christ Church and St. Silas (1850 - 1896) Sculcoates, Kingston upon Hull

St Silas Anglican Church, Balwyn North, (Camberwell Deanery), (Diocese of Melbourne) Australia.

This church was begun in 1942 in temporary premises but the present church was opened in 1963. It was consecrated on 15th September 1985.

In the early 1960's, Louis Williams firm designed the church of St Silas, in North Balwyn, a prosperous Eastern Suburb of Melbourne. He abandoned his usual adapted gothic for a more angular, but moderate, modern style, while retaining a traditional Anglican plan with a side chapel. The church is not regarded as a major work of this architect. It is not an Anglo-Catholic parish.

Many thanks to the Very Rev. Mgr. Peter J. Elliott, Episcopal Vicar for Religious Education, Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne, and Parish Priest of St Mary the Immaculate Conception, East Malvern for the information supplied about this church.

For a more detail information about this Parish please Click Here

St Silas, Madden Street, Albert Park, (Port Phillip Deanery), Victoria

This church is of similar proportions to Kentish Town, was built in 1927, but never completed according to plans because of the Depression. It is a major work by Louis Williams, an Australian architect who designed many churches, mainly Anglican, according to a modern gothic style of his own. Louis worked from the 'Twenties to the 'Sixties. St Silas is a very lofty church, built in clinker brick (dark red with double fired for its deep blue effect). Its lofty apse is visible from the Grand Prix Circuit around the Albert Park Lake. The incomplete church was drastically remodelled and finished in a simplified form by the Rev'd Leslie Llewelyn Elliott, vicar from 1957-1970, and President of the Australian Church Union. In 1961 he built a parish hall within the church structure, converting it into a two-storey building, access to the church above is gained by stairs. The sanctuary on the new level was re-ordered for "Western Use" liturgy at that time. The church remains within the Anglo Catholic tradition, now re-ordered in a post-Vatican II style. Its existing glass and fittings have been enriched by a recent refurbishment with the inclusion of glass, images etc. from the smaller church of St Anselm in the now suppressed adjoining parish of Middle Park. With the real estate boom and gentrification, Albert Park is now a stronger parish.

Items from S. Anselm's include a processional cross, a crucifix depicting Christ as a priest and a statue of S. Anselm.

Two windows in S. Silas from S. Anselm were designed by Brooks Robinson and Co., Melbourne.
The Ascension, 1922-3.
Designed to commemorate Cedric Howell, DSO, MC, DFC, a distinguished airman whose plane crashed near Corfu on his return trip to Australia in 1919, the choice of scriptural subject may have been intended as an allusion to Howell himself, regarded as one whose life ended with a final ascent; the understanding of the serviceman as a kind of saint, commonly verbalised but less frequently visualised may also have played a role. Correspondences between scriptural subject matter and those memorialised appears to have been a feature of some 19th century stained glass.

The Holy Women at the Tomb, 1925.
Unveiled by a former army chaplain, who used the occasion to refer to ‘the patient endurance of hardship and the willing obedience to the call of self-sacrifice’ shown by those who served, the choice of the women visiting the tomb on Easter Day as a subject may have partly been a veiled or unconscious comment on those women left bereaved by World War I.

In addition there is a 1979 window with an almost kitsch treatment of St Francis in the manner of a 1920s Brooks Robinson window showing St Francis with a rosella on his shoulder and a kangaroo looking up in wonder from in front of him.Very Rev. Mgr Peter J.

Many thanks to the Very Rev. Mgr. Peter J. Elliott, Episcopal Vicar for Religious Education, Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne, and Parish Priest of St Mary the Immaculate Conception, East Malvern for the detailed information supplied about this church.

For additional information.

It is reported in the St Silas Bi-monthly Paper dated June-September 1927 that Fr Whittingham received a letter from the Revd C.W. Woolley who was Vicar of St. Silas, North Geelong, Victoria, Australia, February 16th 1927 which said:-
Dear Father,
The name of your Church appeared in the Church Times of January 7th so I am writing to ask if you would kindly tell me when the feast of St Silas takes place. The Vicar of another St Silas in this diocese (Melbourne) has been unable to find any information, and we are both anxious to know. Both of us have tried to find out but without result so far. We would be extremely grateful if you could help us. This Parish is an industrial one, most of our people work in woolen mills and in the Ford works.
Thanking you in anticipation.
Yours Faithfully,
C.W. Woolley

The St Silas church in Geelong North, Australia closed in about 1995.
It was a wooden weatherboard building like many of its era in Australia. There was nothing really distinctive about it. North Geelong was and still is an industrial area to the west of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. I believe that the building is still there but it has been converted into a private residence.

Gembrook is situated about 54 km east of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It was the terminus for a narrow gauge railway from Belgrave and is now the "Puffing Billy" scenic railway. In 1873 settlers arrived in Gembrook and the first church was built for both and Anglican and a Presybterian congregation. In 1905 a second church was built and dedicated to St Silas. This church was a weatherboard construction but was clad in brick sometime in the 1960's.
The church was put up for sale and bought privately in 1994 so that this historic building would not be demolished, and also so that services could still be offered.
This is the only privately owned functioning Anglican Church in Australia. Services are held regularly and a amateur choir if being formed.

For a more detail information about this Parish please Click Here

St. Silas' Anglican Church, English Harbour,
Trinity Bay, Newfoundland

A school chapel or small church existed there from c.1800 and a new Church of England Church (St. Silas's) was completed in 1829. In 1826 a Wesleyan missionary visited the community and from this time onward the population was almost evenly divided between Church of England members and Wesleyans. The first school was opened by the Colonial Continental Church Society in 1833 and the first teacher was Henry Sheppard, who received a salary of £15 a year. In 1877 a temperance society called the Total Abstinence Mutual Improvement Society was formed; at one time it had a membership of 150 but it was dissolved in 1967.

In the Vestry Meeting minutes it appears that in 1900 the "old" church of St Silas was replaced in 1901 by "new" church of All Saints.

Vestry Minutes of St Silas Church, English Harbour, Newfoundland from 1878 to 1900
http://www.math.mun.ca/~dapike/family_history/silas/vestry/

Transcribed records of all of the Baptisms, Marriages, and Burials recorded in the register from 1834 - 1879 can be found elsewhere on the internet - http://www.math.mun.ca/~dapike/family_history/silas/

The Missing Parish Registers of English Harbour
http://www.math.mun.ca/~dapike/family_history/registers.html

I am anxious to find information and pictures of this church and would be grateful if you could contact me at john@saintsilas.org.uk

This church is in the Diocese of Okigwe-South.
If anyone has any information about it please contact me john@saintsilas.org.uk

Crystal Brook is a small country town about 200k north of Adelaide, in the rural diocese of Willochra.

S. Silas, Crystal Brook, was designed by William K. Mallyon, a Port Pirie Bank Manager, who between 1881 and 1912 in his spare time designed nearly thirty Anglican churches in the rural areas of South Australia. Most of them are simple rectangular buildings of local stone; several are quite impressive. The Crystal Brook church is very basic, but is the earliest building surviving as a 'live church' designed by Mallyon.

If anyone has any information about it please contact me john@saintsilas.org.uk

The sketch of the church was from M.E. Fenton's book W.K. Mallyon, 1850 - 1933: A Sketchbook of Early Church Architecture in the Mid North of Australia.
The original church was built in 1885 at a cost of £375. It was dedicated by GW Kennion. An extension was added to the front in 1911 to provide additional nave room and a vestry.

This church is no longer licensed, but was situated in Waterloo which was in the Parish of Redfern. Built in the 1860s church in an old working-class inner industrial suburb south of the city. The church was licensed on 10th September 1868, consecrated on 11th December 1887, and was closed in 1977.

The photograph of the church has very generously been made available from the archives of Government Printing Office Collection State Library of New South Wales.

St Silas church in a suburb formerly called Styx, now Redwood, in the parish of Belfast, in a northwestern suburb of Christchurch.
Address:- 237 Main North Road, Redwood, Christchurch

There has been a church of St Silas on this site since 1925, but the current St Silas was dedicated on 25 February 1990. The church began as a mission hall with some American nuns starting a sunday school here.

For additional information about this Parish Click Here

St Paul & St Silas Church Centre is ituated at 80 Lozells Road, Birmingham, B19 2TD (corner of Berners Street) in the Deanery of Handsworth.

The church was built in 1985 to a design by Robert Tolley of S.T. Walker & Partners, replacing one consecrated in 1854.

The building is of brick with roof slopes covered in bold roll concrete tiles, and has a large feature window to the North, of timber construction with exterior cladding of steel sheet. There is no ramped access, but access to the back door of the church is on a level.

It was licenced for worship on 28-May-1986, and is a Parish Centre for Worship. The Bishop made it known informally c.1994 that he desired to bring this building under Faculty jurisdiction, but by Nov-2004 a formal Order to this end had not been issued [as would be needed since licensed before Feb-1993, though not if done within deed of licensing]. [At Jan -03 LA Archive Department held plans XMS891/99].