Short History of St Johns Church in Broadstone
Sunday services were held in Broadstone School from 1872 as there was no Church at that time. In 1888 the church was built, thanks to the generosity of Canon Dawson Damer, the then Vicar of Canford who gave the land and built the chancel, Lord Wimborne, who gave the money to build the rest of the Church and Mrs. Dawson Damer, the wife of the Vicar of Canford, who gave the Parsonage and garden. At this time Broadstone fell within the parish of Canford Magna, largely because that was an ancient parish compared with Broadstone which scarcely existed before the arrival of the railway in the 1870’s.
The Church was dedicated on St. John the Baptist’s Day, 24th June, 1888 by Bishop Wordsworth. The first Curate in Charge was Rev. E. C. Hawkes whose salary was £90 a year. Mrs. Dawson Damer died in February 1905.She had been a most generous benefactor to the Church and left a further £10,000 in her will. The next major event was the creation of Broadstone as a Parish in its own right in 1906. By now the population had risen to 2000 approximately.
The Church and its parishioners had to deal with changes during the Great War; either the troops encamped in the neighbourhood, the calling up of large numbers of men for war service or, sadly, the news of deaths from the front, the sea or hospitals where wounded men had died. There is a west window, dedicated to the dead of the Great War, installed soon after 1920. In the chancel hang two boards commemorating the dead of both World Wars. It is the custom of the Vicar to read the names of all these deceased on Remembrance Sunday.
A number of changes have taken place over the years, a north aisle being added in 1909 and various items being given to the Church by generous donors, quite often in remembrance of relatives who had died, particularly in the Great War. In more recent times a generous and anonymous donation allowed the building of a parish office and a ramp and toilet for the disabled.
At the time of writing [2007] the population of Broadstone is 16,000 or thereabouts.
Indubitably there will be further changes to the fabric of the Church and it is hoped that these may be recorded on this page. Should the author have made any glaring mistakes or omissions, it would be appreciated if these could be brought to the notice of the Church.