St John’s Church in West Bay marks its 80th anniversary this year, so we take a look back at how it came to be.

Bridport Harbour lay in the parish of Burton Bradstock when, in 1862, the Rev’d W. C. Templer began to hold services in an old sail loft.

Services were only held here in the summer until, in January 1864, a half hundred-weight of coal was bought and the experiment was made of holding services in the winter. This became a regular occurrence and at this time a pattern of one service a month throughout the year had been established.

The rapid advance of the Prussian army across France in the summer of 1870 roused the people of Bridport Harbour to respond generously to an appeal for aid to the sick and wounded in the French war.

Paris was about to undergo its historic siege in the winter that followed. Next autumn the church closed for six months.

When it reopened, the price of coal had nearly doubled, and rent was now being paid for the first time. There is evidence that economic conditions were mostly responsible for the closure of the church for the next 11 years from 1875 to 1886.

It was re-opened by the Rev’d J. L. Templer, who called it the ‘Licensed Room, West Bay’.

It was after the war that a dream of a new place of worship beside the harbour started to become a reality.

In 1923, Messers. Gape, Gerard and Clunning took the lead in opening a church building fund and the land was given by Mr A. G. Fox Pitt-Rivers, which at the time was the site of a concrete factory.

Mr W. R. Randoll Blacking, of Salisbury, a church architect, was asked to prepare plans.

At first, the church building fund lost momentum because Bridport was financially committed to paying for Church House, new bells and repairing the organ. But new vigour and leadership were brought in when the rector, the Rev’d Lindsey Bartlett, appointed his curate, the Rev’d Mostyn Clarke, as priest-in-charge at West Bay.

The fund revived, the architect’s plans were modified, and in 1932 they were approved by the Diocesan Advisory Committee.

A big step forward was taken in 1934 when the Bishops of Salisbury and Sherborne, in response to a suggestion from Bridport Parochial Church Council, decided that the Diocesan memorial to Canon Farrer, the Sub-Dean of Salisbury Cathedral who was Rector of Bridport for 21 years from 1895 to 1916, should take the form of a new church in the parish.

It was decided the new church should be dedicated to St John the Evangelist and that it should be blessed in memory of Canon Farrer.

The building contract was signed with Mr. F. D. Fowler of Bridport.

On April 23, 1935, funds amounted to £2,300 and the work went ahead quickly.

On May 28, 1935. Canon C. Myers, a friend of Canon Farrer, laid the foundation stone of the sanctuary of the church of St John the Evangelist. Within it was a sealed lead box containing a current copy of the parish magazine and the evening’s service, a set of jubilee postage stamps and an inscribed and signed parchment.

The Lady Chapel, porch and vestries were built that summer and autumn as a cost of £2,200. They were dedicated by the Rev’d. Dr. St. Clair Donaldson, Lord Bishop of Salisbury, on November 18.

The building of the sanctuary and nave of the main church continued intermittently during the next four years, each stage being delayed until sufficient funds were raised. The Diocesan Board of Finance gave generous help by means of grants and an interest-free loan of £1,500 so that the church was completed.

It was dedicated on May 21. 1939 by Dr. E. Neville Lovert, Lord Bishop of Salisbury. The total cost of the building and furnishings amounted to some £6,000.

St John’s suffered minor damage during the war in 1942 when a smoke shell fired during a military exercise penetrated the vestry sky light and burnt the carpet.

St John’s Church has been on the site ever since.