St. Simon Stock, Ashford (South)

Introduction

Around 1960, Saint Simon's Hall on Brookfield Road was built and opened as a Mass centre for South Ashford parishioners.

History

In 1991, the new church opened and the parish priest moved into the presbytery. In 1995, a new parish priest was appointed. Saint Simon's Church was consecrated on 31st October 1996. In 2001, the parish priest left Ashford and a new parish priest was appointed.

On 20th August 2019, a new priest in charge began serving the parish. Designs for the new church are dated 1989 by Stocks Design Build. According to the parish priest at the time, he worked closely with the in-house architect at Stocks to arrive at the design which was apparently inspired by the church of San Clemente, in Rome.

The new parish came to birth on 21st January 1987, with the first parish priest living in nearby Grantley Close. The first parish priest sold part of the land behind the present church to the Borough Council, and he oversaw the building of a church and presbytery on the same site as the church hall, which started in 1990.

Architecture and furnishings

The church is an L-plan building of church and presbytery, steel framed with concrete block infill, faced in brick and with a concrete overlapping Roman tile roof. The entrance lobby is set in the angle of the L and a covered walkway runs along the internal elevations of the L creating a cloister-like effect, with a round-arched arcade on reconstituted stone columns. The colonnade is taken across the corner on the diagonal and here a Venetian form of opening is used, set beneath a broad gable. The exterior is characterised by large areas of unrelieved brickwork with round-arched windows set low down in the church and in two tiers in the presbytery, linked at ground floor level by a continuous soldier course of yellow bricks.

The interior is largely plain, with a canted ceiling, and has a west gallery (incomplete, with only ladder access) and rooms below with glazed walls. The marble reredos was brought from the upper chapel of the convent of the Handmaids of the Sacred Heart, Foxgrove Road, Beckenham, and has attractive reliefs of angels of adoration to either side in Carrara marble. The Risen Christ over the altar is of more contemporary design and also came from the convent in Beckenham.

Music and liturgy

The choir leads the congregation in singing hymns and enriches the quality of worship. Altar servers wear the alb, the robe of baptism, as a sign of their position in the community as baptized people. The altar server ministry is open to anyone from children in primary school to adults.

Parish life

The parish of St Simon Stock, South Ashford offers pastoral care for those in and around the South Ashford area. The parish school is St Simon of England Catholic School.