The Sun.
London, England, 1844-07-18 00:00:00

CHURCH EXTENSION.

Special meetings of the Incorporated Society for Pro•
moting the Enlargement, Building, and Repairing of
Churches and Chapels, were held on the Ist and 15th
instant, in consequence of the numerous and pressing
applications for aid which have been received from va-
rious parts of the country. The Lord Bishop of London
presided ; there were also present the Bishops of Dur-
ham, Lincoln, Gloucester and Bristol, Norwich, Lich-
field, and Chichester, the Earl of Harrowby, the Rev.
Doctors Spry and D'Oyley. The Committee having,
among other business, ordered the payment of ten
grants to the places where the works undertaken
with the aid of the Society have been completed
(eight of these grants being voted towards build-
ing additional churches), proceeded to consider the
applications for assistance recently received, and voted
new grants of money towards building twelve ad-
ditional churches or chapels, and towards rebuilding,
enlarging, or otherwise increasing the accommodation
in ten existing churches or chapels, making twenty-two
grants in all. The new buildings are to be erected for
districts in the parish of Gainsborough, and for districts
in the parishes of Middleton, in Teesdale, Durham;
Ashbourn, Derby ; Sandbach, Cheshire ; Woolwich,
Kent; Calverley, Yorkshire; Barnstaple, Devon; Bush-
bury, Staffordshire ; Lynn, Norfolk ; Gosport, Hants ;
and Didsbury, a chapelry in the parish of Manchester.
The churches to be enlarged, &c., are situate at Ystra-
dyfoding, Glamorganshire; St. Feock, Cornwall ; Great
Bookham, Surrey ; Lower Guiting, Gloucestershire ;
Yardley, Harts; Ninebanks, Northumberland; Stran-
ton, Durham; Kirkdale, near Liverpool; Attleborough,
Norfolk; and Tarrant Gunville, Dorset. Five of the
districts in which new churches are to be built, are
situated from one to seven miles from the nearest
churches, and although the other districts are nearer
to places of worship, they are equally destitute of
accommodation, as those churches are fully occupied by
the inhabitants of the districts to which they properly
belong. The population of the twenty-two parishes now
assisted is 462,000 souls, the number of existing churches
is 72; containing accommodation for 69,034 persons,
and including 18,994 free seats. The free church room
is, therefore, only one seat for twenty-four inhabitants.
The additional accommodation to be obtained by the
execution of the works referred to in the applications
which have been now considered, is 6,199 sittings, 4,940
to be free and unappropriated. It will be observed that
five-sixths of the new seats are to be free; indeed, two
of the new churches, viz., those intended to be built at
Middleton and Gosport, will be wholly free; a further
evidence of the growing conviction that it is of the utmost
importance to provide the labouring classes with the
means of attending public worship. The aggregate amount
of the population of the twenty-two places above
referred to, when compared with the total present pro-
vision of church room therein, does not convey an accu-
rate idea of the wants of particular parishes ; and
without again calling attention to the parish of Man-
chester, it should be noticed that Middleton in Tees-
dale contains a population of 3,000 persons, and has one
church with 254 sittings. Woolwich contains nearly
28,000 inhabitants with one church accommodating
1,500 persons, and a proprietary chapel. Kirkdale, a
suburb of Liverpool, has a population of 5,000 persons,
rapidly increasing, and 960 sittings in the chapel,
100 only of which are free. Lynn, with more than
12,000 inhabitants, has two churches accommodating
about one sixtii of the number, but affording free
accommodation for only 450 persons. Gosport, contain-
ing a population of nearly 8,000 persons, with only a
proprietary chapel containing 1,000 sittings, of which
only about 300 are free. Sandbach with 6,600 inhabi-
tants and 1,247 sittings in two churches, only 224 of
which are free. In these six parishes, therefore, there
is a population of 63,000 persons, 55,901 of whom have i
no seats provided for them n the existing churches, in
which the free accommodation is only 1,822 seats, or one
sitting for 35 persons. The board have determined that
in future they will hold a meeting on the third Monday
in July in each year, instead of the usual meeting is
October : they have, therefore, adjourned their sittings
to the 18th of November next.