The development illustrated above, to stand on the site of the demolished church, was turned down by the Borough Council Development Control Board on April 13th. The reasons for refusal were the quality of the design and the impact on the conservation area. The elected members were particularly unhappy with the open car parking to the rear and would have preferred a row of garages. The four mid-terraced properties had too small gardens and no external storage space.

The chairman of the Development Control Board had visited the site and was appalled at the state the building had been allowed to deteriorate to. She accepted the building would have to come down now, but regarded this as a shame and specifically asked that it be minuted that the Board were disappointed that The Diocese of Ely had not acted to repair the building earlier, and had not conducted iitself appropriately in this matter

The most recently submitted plans have taken on board earlier criticism that this was simply a commercial development focused on profit by proposing the use of some of the land as allotments for villagers.

In the plan above, the land at the bottom is proposed as allotments, and the strip to the side is reserved for access. The square plot is for the proposed development.

Shortly after the refusal, with concerned villagers confident that they'd won -- until the next time -- the Diocese of Ely won the argument about not needing permission to demolish.A lot of activity around the church (and zero consultation) was revealed to be engineers who had initially been called in to make the building safe. What they found led them to argue that the church is now so unsafe it must be demolished immediately. Ely has also found a loophole in the Environmental Legislation that means thay can demolish on safety grounds and not have to rehouse the bats! Not to mention the birds nesting in the bell tower!

Possibly the most frustrating thing about this indecent haste and the invocation of health and safety concerns is that during the 2003 Parish Meeting called to discuss the closure of the Chequers and the state of the Church, the question of liability were the church to fall down and injure someone was hotly debated. The Church did nothing for seven years, but now it appears that we must move with all despatch!

We can mourn the passing of this once-fine building, we can regret the duplicity and greed of the Diocesan authorities, we can continue to strive against inappropriate development and we can hope that the allotment proposals aren't withdrawn. And we can watch the demolition -- in sorrow, here is our album of the works. (Click on any image to enlarge)

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We can regret the lack of concern shown by the Diocese for its worshippers, who are ignored and for whom no provision is made, but we should also remember that churches, especially in small communities such as ours, have an important social function. This was brought home to us as we watched the demolition by one passing resident who stopped to sadly survey the wreckage. "I was married in there, thirty years ago."

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Another resident, watching the demolition when the brick-by-brick precision had given way to brute force, remembered how the church had never been the most robust of buildings. "It was built on peat, and when that dried out, the building would move -- they still do today. I was in the choir, and during the sermons I would amuse myself by sticking my fingers into the cracks that had appeared."

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There is a delicious sense of irony in the injunction exposed behind the altar when the interior of the church became visible to villagers once again.

Wildlife and the environment have taken something of a knock in this squalid shambles; most of those familiar with this saga will know that one condition imposed on the proposed development was that adequate provision should be made for the bats resident in the church. This condition was rolled over to the 'emergency' demolition, which was not permitted to start until a replacement bat roost was in place -- oh yeah? And there is something poignant in the image on the left above -- perhaps there is something in the notion that animals and birds are more perceptive than humans: these jackdaws are visiting their former nest in the church steeple on the evening before it succumbed to the wrecker's blows.

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As the walls came down and villagers were again able to see inside the church, the complete lack of care taken over the building and its contents became apparent. Many religions venerate their holy books -- not the Diocese of Ely arm of the Church of England! The bible lost in the rubble is appositely open at the book of Exodus; elsewhere, a prayer book is open at the service for the Burial of the Dead.