St Marys Church, Boongate, Peterborough

On a light spring evening in April, the Monthly meeting of the Peterborough Local History Society was very well attended with several new members and visitors. The evening’s speaker was Dr Hilary Dawson. Dr Dawson is the secretary and magazine editor of St Mary’s Parochial Church Council. Her subject was the history of the St Marys Church in Boongate Peterborough. St Marys Church is a Church of England religious denomination with a short but interesting history. 

“The Parish of St Mary’s to the East of Peterborough was created by Order-in-Council on September 1st 1857. It was the largest parish in Peterborough and comprised of Eastfield, Boongate and Newark (an outlying village then) to the East of Peterborough” – Extract from St Mary’s website.

It was also one of the poorest areas of Peterborough so the Church was built cheaply with the foundation stone being laid on the 30th of September 1859. The building was consecrated by the Bishop of the Diocese on August 7th.1860. The congregation were avid fundraisers and a tower, a clock, six bells and a stained glass window were added over the years 

By the mid-20th century, the building was in a bad state of repair with a leaking roof, crumbling brickwork and inadequate heating. There was little money to facilitate the extensive repairs needed so the Vicar the Rev James Bates put forward a plan to sell the old Church and surrounding prime land to New Town developers, (The Peterborough Development Corporation) in return for a new Church to be built by them for the Parish. 

The present St Marys Church that now stands on the junction of St Johns Road, New Road, Boongate and Eastgate was dedicated on 16th November 1991, by William, Lord Bishop of Peterborough. The brutally modernist building belies the warm welcoming interior of the church and some artefacts of the original church were incorporated into the new church including the original arched stone entrance and the stained glass window.

More information can be found here- https://peterborough-stmarys.org.uk/