‘The glory of this present house will be greater than the glory
of the former house,’ says the Lord Almighty.
Haggai,
chapter 2, verse 9
Jesus asked, ‘Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? Was no-one
found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?’
Luke,
chapter 17, verses 17-18
Janet Lee, Vicar’s wife:
I heard a whistle and then a roar. I leaped out of bed and saw the end of the church on fire. It was a red inferno, and the windows were falling out.
Raymond Lee, Vicar:
I had been at a discussion group in Geoffrey Stubbs’ house. It was Friday 9 June 1972. At 10.30 pm I left to visit Mrs Hoyle in Moorland Avenue: her son Peter, a close personal friend of mine, had died suddenly on the previous Tuesday, aged 38, and his funeral was to be in St Luke’s Church on the Saturday morning. Just after 11.30, as we were talking, the phone rang. It was Pamela Stubbs: ‘Raymond! It’s bad news: St Luke’s is on fire! Janet has been on the phone!’ I said good-bye, and dashed out. Then Colin Clarke appeared and jumped in my car. We drove to the Church. There was thick black smoke, fire engines, and we could not drive further. I jumped out. Colin parked my car behind the bank. Janet, my wife, had discovered the fire at 11.30, and her prompt action in summoning the right authorities in the right order undoubtedly saved the Church from total destruction. The tower, spire, and all walls except the chancel are safe and will remain. But we shall need a new roof, and a completely new interior.
Over the last ten years many thousands of pounds had been spent on our parish church: a new organ had been built, there were new carpets, the kneelers, and new lighting; it had been completely redecorated, completely rewired, an oil-fired boiler installed, and a new Holy Table and communion rails placed in the central position. David Vaughan first brought me here on 4 February 1970. I knew the old St Luke’s Hall was sold. I knew the old Vicarage was to be demolished. But the Church was in perfect order, I fell in love with it at once, and here I was instituted as vicar of the parish on 17 July 1970. Since then we have seen the new St Luke’s Hall built, we are living in the new St Luke’s Vicarage (both dedicated by the Bishop of Liverpool on St Luke’s Day 1971), the new St Luke’s Primary School is programmed and building should commence in 1974 – but now we have lost our Church.
The burnt-out chancel after the fire.
Men and women wept in the street that night. After all St Luke’s has stood here since 1853, when Queen Victoria was only 35, long before the days of electricity, radio, motor-cars and aeroplanes. The Church survived the bombing of Liverpool in the Second World War, and it was a terrible experience to see it burning. The firemen and the police did their work splendidly. Inside the building there was a deafening roar of flame. Communion vessels, robes, registers, were all being rescued from the vestries. Bob Warnock appeared: it was his last week-end as our verger. Bill Hudson was there. So was John Woodward, our organist. Ian and Ronnie Elliott came, and our thoughts went back to St Mary’s Halewood, burnt down only two months ago. Tony James was there, a newcomer to the church, and feeling completely helpless for there was nothing we could do. Ted Bootle came at 3 am, having slept till then: it was a terrible shock for him, and I walked back home with him to his house.
Jared Whetnall, Treasurer:
I arrived home from work on Friday, 9 June, 1972, and assumed that the weekend would be similar to other weekends. How wrong I was! On Saturday morning about 9.00 am I had a telephone call from the vicar, Raymond Lee: ‘Last night there was a fire at the church. Will you come to the vicarage as soon as possible?’
As I turned up the path alongside the church, it looked quite normal and I thought that the fire must have been fairly small. However, when I reached the small gate I could see that the chancel roof had fallen in. The fire brigade were still there. They would only let me go to the vestry door. I looked into the church. It was a blackened ruin. The organ had been completely destroyed. Even as I looked, pieces of wood fell down from the nave roof.
I thought, as I walked back down the path, ‘This would happen when I’m the church treasurer!’
Peggy Burns:
On the night of the church fire my husband Jack was returning from late shift at work and rushed in shouting ‘The church is on fire.’ We both went along to see for ourselves but couldn’t get near because of the crowd and the fire engines. I remember a man going around with a hat organizing a collection.
The Vicar continues:
It was a tragedy, and nobody yet knows what was the cause. But thank God no lives were lost, and no-one was hurt. The real church is the people, and so long as we all stay together and our congregation continues to grow, then the future is secure. It would be a far greater disaster if we lost members of our large congregation, but I have been assured on all sides that this is unlikely to happen. The real church, the people, were much in evidence on the Saturday, the day following the fire, and they set to work and turned the tragedy into a triumph with their love and support. Archdeacon Bates telephoned immediately after hearing about us on the 8 am news bulletin. The Bishop of Warrington came at 8.10. Later in the day came the Archdeacon of Liverpool, the Rural Dean, Len Sutch the Methodist minister, Dean Flynn and Canon Danher, brother priests from the local Roman Catholic churches. Canon Lindsay came with flowers for Janet, and a telegram arrived from St Mary of Bethany, Woking, my former parish in Surrey. St Luke’s people sorted out the beautiful tapestried kneelers, prayer-books and hymn-books. They recovered the lectern, and polished it till it shone as never before. They cleared up St Luke’s Hall, where the contents of the Church had all been taken, turned its stage into a sanctuary, and the Hall into a church. Angela Veevers came at 11 at night, straight back from holiday, and arranged flowers as usual for Sunday’s services. St Frideswyde’s, Thornton, provided portable communion rails, and St Nicholas’, Blundellsands, lent music books for the choir, Ian Elliott celebrated Holy Communion at 8 am on St Barnabas’ Day, 11 June, and at 10.30 the Hall was packed to overflowing for the Parade Service, and the people sang as never before in St Luke’s, Great Crosby. Janet, my wife, read the passage from Haggai, ‘the glory of this latter house shall be greater than the former’, and John Woodward our organist read from St John 14, ‘Let not your heart be troubled.’
The building we love is badly damaged, but the people of St Luke’s are more united now than ever before in their love for God and for one another. There is a wonderful atmosphere in our Sunday services, All Saints’ Church is helping St Luke’s in every possible way, and we now go forward to build a new St Luke’s from the ruins of the old.
Much has happened since that first week-end. The Bishop of Liverpool walked in at the end of the Parochial Church Council meeting held the following Thursday, quite unexpected, and prayed for us as we begin our task of rebuilding. A Restoration Fund has started itself, and generous gifts amounting to almost £1000 have passed through my hands at the time of writing. Christians of all denominations have written and sent gifts. Two local public-houses organized collections for us, and young people stood in the street all day Saturday collecting money from shoppers and passers-by. Much more has happened, and there will be still more to tell as the months go by. But I believe this disaster will prove to be one of the greatest triumphs in the story of St Luke’s, Great Crosby, and I thank God with all my heart for bringing us to live here. I pray that I and my family will be kept in good health ready to serve you in Christ’s name for many years to come, and that all of you will be kept to see St Luke’s restored, ‘and the glory of this latter house shall be greater than the former’.
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This Restoration Fund was for restoring the life of the Church as well as the fabric, and the PCC ordered additional temporary buildings to be erected alongside St Luke’s Hall. These were expected to be ready in the September following the fire. They were to be used on Sundays by Junior Church and Crossbearers, and also in the week at a cost of about £2500. St Luke’s Church was fully insured with the Ecclesiastical Insurance Office Ltd, and the values had been increased only the October before the fire. The purpose of the Restoration Fund was to pay for items not covered by the insurance. Later, however, a huge problem appeared. VAT had started ten months after the fire, and as this could not have been foreseen, the insurance did not cover it. On an estimated cost of £150,000 for the repairs, this would amount to £20,000. Jared Whetnall, Treasurer, however, saw a loophole. The ‘repairs’ were in fact ‘new’ (roof, organ, heating system, lighting, pews and vestry block) and therefore not liable for VAT. He appealed to the VAT tribunal, conducting the appeal himself, but it was rejected. The only recourse was to the High Court. Sir Graham Page, MP for Crosby and a solicitor, gave advice and encouragement. He said that he would speak to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Geoffrey Howe, but the case had to go to the High Court. It did and we won. Bedford School, which had also benefited from the decision, gave £2000 which was used to buy the cupboards at the back of the church. Six churches who were also awaiting the St Luke’s result neglected to follow Luke chapter 17, verses 17-18!
The restoration fund had in fact been started unofficially by a group of young people on the morning following the fire: they stood in the street, made a banner, stopped passing cars and collected over £60. The appeal was not launched officially until 9 June 1973, the first anniversary of the fire. By then the fund had reached £5500 but £15,000 was still needed to bridge the gap between the insurance and the rebuilding, and later an appeal for a further £1000 was launched to restore the bells and the clock. The response was staggering: the vicar’s secretary wrote nearly 1,500 letters acknowledging gifts received by post. Gifts came from all over the world and from other churches in the district, the first being St William of York RC Church with £100, from newspaper collections (£900), from the Ladies’ Sewing Party (24 members raising almost £1000), from gifts instead of floral tributes in memory of loved ones, pence from children, pounds from local organisations. By March 1975 all but £700 had been raised.
Rebuilding after the fire.
With hindsight, the financial position could not have turned out better. The church had been revalued for insurance purposes the year before the fire. During the rebuilding, inflation reached 20% a year, yet the work was completed for the contract price. The insurance money was invested, bringing in £17,000 of interest. The rebuilding cost £170,000 and the insurance was £133,000. The parish raised £20,000 which, together with the interest, meant that St Luke’s was rebuilt without any money being owed on completion, and £12,000 VAT was recovered.
Although the fire seemed a disaster and such a lot of extra work was needed to repair the damage and raise funds for the rebuilding, the following comments show other aspects:
‘I remember it as a good time because everyone got to know everyone else as the hall was so packed.’ (Dorothy Armstrong)
‘The fire was another milestone which brought about great change. They realised how much they valued the Church. It was much more informal in the hall and everyone got to know each other better and it was a very unifying experience.’ (Joyce Whetnall)
‘The rebuilding period was a very happy time in the history of the church.’ (Helen Terry)
‘On the first St Luke’s Day after the fire, a service of Holy Communion was held for members of the PCC at 7 am. The pews at the back of the church were lined with newspaper and it was lit with candles. It was memorable because at the closing of the service the early morning sun shone through the broken windows with beautiful rays of light.’ (Dorothy Armstrong)
The interior after restoration.
The dedication of the rebuilt (nb not ‘repaired’!) St Luke’s Church on Sunday, 13 April 1975 coincided with the 40th Anniversary of All Saints’ Church, and was therefore an occasion for double, and combined, celebration. For the main morning and evening services, admission was by ticket only, obtainable in advance. The 8 am Holy Communion for members of both churches was held at All Saints’, the celebrant being the Bishop of Warrington (John Bickersteth). The 10.30 am service was at St Luke’s where the Good Samaritan Chapel, the gift of All Saints’, was dedicated by the Bishop in the presence of the Chairman of the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton with the builders as special guests. At 2.30 pm processions assembled at the two churches, with the church bells rung at St Luke’s and the Salvation Army band at All Saints’. Each gathering, consisting of clergy, choir, uniformed organisations, congregation and friends, then processed to the Northern Road where at 3 o’clock a joint open air service was held, at which the Bishop spoke. In the evening there was a thanksgiving service at All Saints’ for their 40 years, in the presence of the Town Mayor of Crosby. The Bishop dedicated the link building between the church and the hall, again admission by ticket only. It was a marvellous example of goodwill between the Churches: All Saints’ gift of furniture for the Good Samaritan Chapel was matched by St Luke’s gift of the redecoration of All Saints’.
In November 1972 Stuart Blanch, the Bishop of Liverpool, had written to Raymond Lee: ‘It is astonishing, when we are prepared to believe it, how the good Lord can bring good out of evil. There is, I suppose, no such thing in this world as an unmitigated disaster, and I am sure that the fire and all that has gone with it will be fruitful in unexpected ways.’ How true! In 1975, in the special edition of the church newsletter entitled ‘Together’, Raymond Lee was able to write: ‘Instead of a dark church, where electric lights had to be switched on even in summer, we have a building filled with daylight. Instead of stained glass windows with nearly a hundred years of dirt, we have glorious pictures in a blaze of colour in those windows which have been restored to their former glory. A new organ can be heard clearly from the west gallery. The choir can be seen and heard in the south transept. The new Good Samaritan Chapel has been formed below the famous window. The bells, long fallen into disuse, will ring again. The pews are clean and far more comfortable. The font can be seen in all its glory instead of being hidden by pews. The roof has become one of the most glorious features of the building, and from the old roof, ravaged by fire, we rescued the timbers to make the new cross on the east wall, the very symbol of our Christian faith.’