St Peter's ChurchWatford

The Buildings

St Peter's Church began life in the 1930's when the surrounding roads were being built. Originally the church building was what is now the hall, on the Westfield Avenue end of the site (next to the Vicarage). This was a dual-purpose hall with the 'church bit' at the nearer end and the open area at the further end, separated by a moveable screen. In the 1960s the Vicar, Revd Fred Meager, set about building a new church, which is the current hexagonal shape design. The vestries remained where they had been before, at the extreme near end of the hall, which meant the clergy and any assistants had to walk down the 'covered way' from the vestry for a service.

The hall became just a larger space for general activities, and the screen was eventually removed through disrepair.

In 1999 a major renovation was carried out, which completely restored the kitchen and toilets, and refloored and redecorated the hall, installing a new screen. We made a new lounge where the vestries had been and moved the clergy vestry to an under-used room at the back of the church.

This picture, taken in the 1950s, shows the church in the hall. See the FAQs page for modern pictures of the hall.

Until being damaged by vandals during 2004 the parish were largely unaware of the significance of the wonderful coloured west wall of the church's Baptistery. In February 1997 the wall had been dedicated to Olive Timpson. Only on her death had it been revealed that it had been her anonymous donation that had had the wall constructed.

Clearly the repair was going to take a little more than a call to a local glazier, but to who should the call be made?

Church Warden Andrew Taylor took on the challenge to research the repair. The first enquiry was made to one of the parish who had originally helped build the church. Dennis Gardener was able to say that the 'Wall' had been produced by a monk at Buckfast Abbey.

This technique is called 'Dellas De Verre' and was developed at by Father Charles Norris. An enquiry to the Abbey revealed that owing to the death of Father Charles no one at the Abbey was 'doing' glass. A further search of the web resulted in locating numerous sites on the technique - however by far the most common website referenced was that of Father Charles at Buckfast. Clearly he had been one of the World's leading exponents of the 'Dellas De Verre' process. In other words the West Wall of the church of St Peter's, Watford is a significant architectural feature.

After further research on the web the repair was carried out with the authority of Venerable Helen Cunliffe, the Archdeacon for the parish. The repair was carried out by Susan Ashworth M.Art RCA, AMGP, of Blackheath, London. More information about her work can be found here