The land on which the church was later built was purchased from the Paddocks Estate (plots 37 and 38). Plans for a temporary building were agreed by the Mile Oak Estates Ltd. The Revd E.P.W. Holmes, vicar of St Nicolas’s Church, Portslade, obtained planning permission from Portslade Council in March 1936.

The original building was donated by the vicar of the Good Shepherd, Brighton, and Mrs Gerald Moor, a local benefactor. The cost of the site, erecting the structure and equipping it was put at £450. The project got off to a disastrous start when a gale ripped through the area when the building was only partially erected and the ground was littered with twisted and torn debris.

But this setback caused more people to rally round and the Bishop of Lewes dedicated the church on 8th November 1936. In 1940 the church hall was used for four mornings a week by a girls’ school evacuated from London. It was called St Saviour’s and St Cleves’s Grammar School for Girls. The church was nicknamed the tin hut but this was a term of affection because the congregation valued its church. The church hall provided the focus for the social life of people living in Mile Oak and events staged there ranged from jumble sales to parties, and from beetle drives to concerts.

In June 1966 it was announced that a new church would be built instead of the temporary building as part of the Sussex Church Campaign. The Sussex Church Campaign made a grant of £23,000 (to which All Saints, Hove, had contributed £7,500) and St Nicolas’s Church, Portslade, provided the remaining £2,000. The architects were Clayton, Black & Daviel with Mr M.G. Alford, partner in charge. Natural daylight falling on the centrally placed altar, was achieved by designing two roof slopes at different angles, and placing windows in the spaces between. Kenneth Budd designed the two modern-style stained glass windows and the bright colours are lovely. Ian Potts of the Brighton College of Art designed the wrought-iron and beaten-copper work. An inscribed ship’s bell replaced the larger bell that had been used in the temporary church.

On 28 October 1967 the Bishop of Chichester, Dr Roger Wilson, dedicated the church and the church was not consecrated until 6 November 1994 when the Bishop of Chichester, Dr Eric Kemp, performed the ceremony.

The Good Shepherd remained a conventional district with a priest-in-charge until July 1994 when the Good Shepherd acquired the status of parish. This was short-lived because in 2013 it was re-united with St Nicolas; in fact the whole of Portslade became a single parish under the title of The Parish of Portslade & Mile Oak, which was a return to Portslade’s pre 1964 Parish boundaries.

For more information see this Link to the History of  Mile Oak 

Copyright © J.Middleton 2016