The parish of St. Mary the Virgin was founded at the end of the nineteenth century to meet the growing population of London. It is now a lively multi-cultural church with which the College maintains a strong friendship.
www.smarystottenham.org/
Our visit to the Parish of St. Mary the Virgin, Tottenham by Izzy Archer and James Usmar
On 21 November 2010, we went, along with a friend and Reverend Dales to the parish of Tottenham in North London to represent the College and its connection with the parish and the church of St. Mary the Virgin. We were welcomed by the Vicar and his family briefly into their home, even though they were preparing for the confirmation service to follow. We were also supporting Reverend Dales in his capacity as honorary preacher; the service itself was dynamic and the congregation were supportive to those being confirmed. There was a strong community spirit and after the service there was a buffet lunch which was laid on by the communicants. The lunch was an interesting aspect of the day, as it gave us the opportunity to talk to the other members of the community.
St. Mary’s itself was established in 1884. Bishop William Walsham How, a Bishop for East London set up a fund for Churches in this area and provided some support for St. Mary’s. However it was set up as the Marlborough College Mission and this was the main source for keeping the Church going. The College undertook to fund a salary for the Priest of the Parish of £150 per year. The collections from our chapel St. Michael and All Angels for five years went towards this salary for the Priest. The old Marlburian boys donated very generously as well which contributed significantly to the costs of building the church and other Mission buildings, and the donations continued through to the 1930s. The Church was very popular with 900 regular communicants and although there was a decline after World War One there were still over 200 communicants. To this day there is still an attendance of around 200 and it is a lively multi-cultural Church.
It is a very active church, and contributes significantly to the local area, offering such activities as Bible studies, outings, a mothers’ union and in mid September 2011 the Society of Mary is organising a trip to Rome. They also run a night shelter which is run by volunteers from the Church.
It is one of our Chaplaincy’s aims to re-establish the link. Although Father Miller is leaving we will keep our connection alive, with strong intentions to make more trips to Tottenham and support the services.