Over a century ago a pioneering work began. It started in a small room over a shop in Wimbledon Road. This was in Summers Town. It was in the parish of Streatham in the county of Surrey. At least, so the Trust Deeds say about Summerstown Mission Evangelical Church.
The first circular to friends stated the object. It aimed “to carry the Gospel to the poorer inhabitants of Summers Town”. Summerstown was a hamlet. It was situated between lower Tooting and Wandsworth Common. The population belonged chiefly to the working classes. The daughter of the Rev. John Bigwood of Upper Tooting was the pioneer. She found the room. She started a sewing meeting for mothers.
Before long Summerstown Mission established a Sunday School. It added a Sunday evening service. After a year a local coach house was lent for the meetings. It was also used as a coffee and reading room for winter evenings. Four years later in 1887 the main hall was erected.
The oldest surviving annual report is from 1889. It makes impressive reading. There were ten on the management committee. There were two secretaries. There was a mothers’ meeting. There was a girls’ sewing group. Over 120 attended the Sunday School. There were nine teachers. Over 100 members joined the week-night ‘Band of Hope’ group. A team of seven ladies did door-to-door work. Temperance Society meetings were held. There was even a ‘Provident Bank’. The report modestly understates God’s blessing on the work. Clearly this is impressive growth for a new church in under ten years.
The Summerstown Mission report mentions many supporters. They gave their time efforts and money to start and sustain the work. A press report described the neighborhood people. They were “of the poorest and most neglected”. There were four public houses in close vicinity. Summers Town was just a rural lane of small cottages. A stream meandered at the bottom of the gardens. The bridge over the River Wandle was just wide enough for one vehicle. On both sides of the lane were cornfields. The children of Summerstown would glean corn and gather fruit. They gathered blackberries.
Some members in the 1980s still remembered the watercress beds in Plough Lane. They recalled the leather mill in Copper Mill Lane. They knew Prices Bakery off Garratt Lane. Back then local people took their Sunday joints to be cooked in the bakery oven. The work of Summerstown Mission was truly a missionary enterprise. Members of at least four churches subscribed to the work. These churches were in wealthier neighborhoods. They came from Wandsworth Common Upper Tooting and Balham.
Through the years and two world wars the Summerstown Mission has endured. It is independent and undenominational. In 1925 the Sunday School had 240 scholars. Today there are only a handful. Yet the work goes on. Up until the 1980s it had a Girls’ Brigade Company. It had a Boys’ Brigade Company. There were women’s meetings. There was Sunday School and Sunday evening services. Today it has Junior Focus Messy Church Minis and Minders and COM club.
The building has been completely flooded twice. More recently flash flooding has caused water to flood into the lower hall. Intruders have stripped lead from the roof on at least two occasions. They have stolen equipment. They constantly smashed windows. These were replaced with unbreakable glass. Is it all worthwhile? The Mission has its own missionary. This former scholar converted in the Sunday School. He is in Brazil. He was working with the Evangelical Union of South America. He retired. Other former members still in touch are in Australia and New Zealand.
In 1949 an anonymous gift arrived. It came from an old gentleman in Toronto Canada. He had converted at Summerstown Mission sixty years before. He urged “Carry on the good work”. In 1980 the team of workers and members was small. The building was dilapidated. But they praised God for a hundred years of service. In faith they renovated the premises. The expenses involved seemed enormous. But the promises of God are being proved. God is faithful.