April 1953 edition

Pages from the April 1953 edition of The Church magazine of Hornchurch Parish Church. The section covering Canvey sent to the magazine by Rev Mortimer has been transcribed at the bottom of the page.

After the Flood

A brotherly diocese wants to pray and help, it also wants to know. The Editor has been making enquiries from the incumbents of some of our water-side parishes and the following: extracts from their replies will be of interest and concern to Essex church people. These are extracts only, selected to give a general picture and to avoid repetition. What is recorded of one parish is almost certainly true of many others.

This page has had to be compiled so long before the date of publication that it cannot claim to give latest information in a changing situation. The Editor is grateful for the careful replies which have made this article possible. The dates of the replies vary considerably; some were written under difficult circumstances. One incumbent courteously says. “I am sorry that my reply is not typed, but my typewriter went when the Vicarage was flooded.”

Canvey. For the next few months Canvey Island is going to be very busy drying out and clearing up— the farm land as well as the houses and bungalows. Warped floor-boards are a problem where the sea-water has stood in the building for long, and this is true of St. Anne’s, our daughter church at Leigh Beck. The parish church, was more fortunate though, at one time the church was completely surrounded and the churchyard submerged.

A, J. Mortimer. (Vicar of Canvey)

Thanks goes to Sue Tidbury who sent in the article