 Warsop
Spion Kop Mission Church
History
This small mission church was opened in 1930 as a mission church of St. Peter and St. Paul, Warsop. It served only a very small community living mainly on a single street, originally named George Street, plus a few scattered dwellings; at some point the street was renamed Mosscar Close. Located on the A60 linking Mansfield and Warsop, it has only about thirty dwellings mainly a mix of semi-detached and detached houses. It is not a typical development of the period in the area which consisted predominantly of terraced housing built by and for the coal mining industry. A former quarry is shown on modern maps and a working farm still exists on land at the top of the street.
It was inconvenient to access the parish church so the Diocese bought a plot of land here and the local community erected the mission church themselves, working in their spare time, mostly weekends and evenings, and led by a local resident, Mr. Illett, who was an experienced bricklayer. Building materials cost £160 and the mission church measured 40' long by 27' wide.
In the early 1960s the church was closed and with its adjoining land was sold for £14,000, despite considerable protest by the users who regarded the building as belonging to them and not to St Peter’s Church – for they had literally built it and raised the cost of the materials by a ‘buy a brick’ scheme and social activities.
During the short life of the Mission it was used for regular church services both on Sundays and during the week and included baptisms, weddings and funerals plus Sunday School, community meetings, Children’s activities and whist drives.
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