Worksop St Anne

History

Sir John
Robinson

The church of St Anne’s in Worksop was completed in 1912. It occupies a prominent position on the main road from Worksop to Mansfield. It is built in 15th century revival style and consists of chancel, nave, two aisles, and a western tower. It was designed by architects E. G. Paley and Hubert James Austin at the expense of Sir John Robinson, JP. It was described by the editor of the Worksop Guardian in 1930 as ‘among the finest churches erected in England within recent years’.

The mission room
in 1911

St Anne’s had originally been an offshoot of the Priory church and had begun its life as a mission room on Castle Hill, one of the most densely populated areas of Worksop in the early 1900s. The building of the church coincided with the creation of a new parish.

The original designs suggested a small tower on the mid-north side with a spire, but this was evidently not deemed sufficiently grand and the north-west tower was constructed instead.

Consecration of the
church in 1912

The church was consecrated on 24 November 1912 by Bishop Hoskyns. According to the report published in the Worksop Guardian, the congregation ‘filled the church to overflowing’. The dedication of the High Altar took place at 8am and there were 300 communicants. The consecration service took place at 11am as ‘every seat in the building was filled, many stood, and many had to be refused admission’.

Kelly's Directory for 1912 describes St Anne's Church as follows: 'A new church for this district is now being erected in Newcastle Avenue; it is of Darley Dale stone in the Perpendicular style; the cost will be about £1,500, the sole gift of Sir John Robinson J.P. of Worksop Manor'.

In the year of its opening, the net annual value of the benefice was rated at £250. The church could accommodate 600 people. There were 205 children listed on the books for the day school and 450 for the Sunday School. There were 68 and baptisms and 31 confirmations in the year ending 30 September 1912.

The register dates from 1913. This year also saw the formation of a consolidated chapelry by order in council out of the parishes of St John’s and St Mary’s, Worksop.

On 19 July 1915 a small triangular piece of land, immediately to the north of the church, was gifted by Henry P.A.D. Pelham-Clinton, 7th Duke of Newcastle, to the vicar and church on condition that no building was to be erected there and that it was to be kept tidy. This piece of land was subsequently used to house the war memorial.

The Rev Hamish
Gray in 1913

When the first vicar of St Anne's, Hamish Gray, died in 1939 he left the sum of £50 in his will to the vicar and churchwardens; this sum now forms part of an endowment for an assistant curacy. Upon the death of Lady Robinson in 1945, a gift of £2,000 was left to the church as part of her last will and testament. This contribution was added to the Worksop Assistant Curacy Endowment Fund which secured the position of an assistant curate.

In 2012, the church marked its centenary with a series of celebrations including a special centenary service attended by the Bishop of Sherwood.