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The history of St Philip’s Church is a short one, as is that of the community of Palm Bay, and the Northdown Park Estate, that our church serves. Our community is bordered by the sea to the north, by the Margate suburb of Cliftonville to the west and the south, and by the Broadstairs suburb of Kingsgate to the east. We are fortunate to live in a beautiful part of England with magnificent sea views from our chalk cliffs and a natural light that has attracted many artists, including Turner, Rossetti and Van Gogh, to paint here.
Development of the Northdown Park Estate began in the 1960’s and spread west along the cliff top from Palm Bay. The area was within the parish of Margate Holy Trinity and it was the vicar of that parish, Reverend John Went, who first raised the idea of a separate church for our community in 1982. The vision was for a church and community centre for the rapidly growing housing development.
The seeds that John Went sowed were nurtured by his successor, Reverend Colin Fletcher and his curate Reverend Philip Taylor. Thanks to the generosity of the parishioners of Holy Trinity, the Bernard Sunley Trust, and the Church of England, the dream slowly began to become a reality.
On 25 July 1992 the first turf was cut and W W Martin & Co Ltd commenced building to the plans drawn up by the architect Mike Duncan. (Coincidentally W W Martin & Co Ltd had built Holy Trinity church in the 1950’s to replace the original church in Trinity Square, Cliftonville, that had been bombed during the Second World War.)
By the autumn of 1992 our church was taking shape and the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr George Carey, conducted a service of blessing on the building site. The completed building was dedicated by the Bishop of Dover, the Right Reverend Richard Llewellyn, on Friday 18 June 1993 at a service attended by some 400 people. It had cost £640,000 to build and fit out the church and, miraculously, that cost had almost been met in full.
At the time of the dedication the parish of Holy Trinity was being cared for by its curate Reverend Chris Davis, as Colin Fletcher had been appointed chaplain to the archbishop and as Philip Taylor had moved on to take over a church of his own. (Sadly Philip died shortly after the opening of St Philips.)
Reverend Kerry Thorpe became the vicar of Holy Trinity on 16 September 1993 and not long after Chris Davis completed his curacy. Chris’ place was taken by Reverend Timothy Wilson on 17 June 1994 and Timothy was given special responsibility for St Philip’s.
On 14 September 1998 our community became the separate parish of Margate St Philips Northdown Park and Timothy Wilson became the parish’s first incumbent, although he was not formally inducted until 29 January 2002. Reverend Patrick Ellisdon was later appointed as curate and cared for us when Timothy left for another parish in the summer of 2003. Patrick subsequently became the vicar at the nearby parish of St Paul's, Cliftonville.
On 14 March 2004, we welcomed our present vicar, Reverend Stuart Gay, at his induction as the second incumbent of our parish.
Over the years we have also been privileged to have been served by the following:
Retired Clergy, Reverend Dick Cotton, Reverend Malcolm Williams, Reverend Steven Young, Curates and Assistant Priests, Douglas Hare, Reverend Robert Marsden, Reverend Sister Elizabeth Shearcroft .
Readers
Norman Griffiths, Helen Rogers, Steve Lillicrap, Sue Woan, Margaret Wright
